Saint Patrick Retold

Now that the streets are, comparatively speaking, safe again this might be a good time to remind our children about who St Patrick, in whose name all this annual extravaganza  takes place, was.

An excellent place to begin is this retelling of the main events of the saint's life as they have been passed down through the generations. The style is direct, in short sentences that young children can absorb. The excellent illustrations by Martin Carter very vividly compliment the words.
With the book there comes a cassette. Side one is a read-along book version of the text with a sound  indicating that it is time to turn the page. Side two is described as a “dramatised version of the story with music and sound effects.” In fact it is a reading of the story by Brendan O'Reilly with music balancing the speech to give the narrative a smoothness and a clarity. Or would if the tape. that came with my copy of the book was ‘clean'. It has all kinds of extraneous noises in the background including muffled speech. I will be taking it back to the place of purchase to-day. Not that I blame the shop assistants for the poor quality of the tape but the publishers.
It is part of a series called ‘Irish Legends.'

Saint Patrick Retold by Reg Keating, Illustrated by Martin Cater fromTarantula Books €6.50. Ages 5 +

Tony Hickey