by Moe Zilla

Created on: February 28, 2010

"There was this old thatched hut nestled in a glen near the river..."

It feels like an Irish folk tale - with both spirit and pain. In the hut live Ninny Nanny and Gram, and "Each had only the other and no more." They live on potato soup - simply - "and their needs were few." But their thatch needs patching, their potatoes need digging, and there's a long list of difficult chores.

It's a humble setting, and the character descriptions are just as stark. ("Ninny Nanny was lazy, and Gram was ailing...") Their chores don't get performed, the potato sack runs empty, and soon the only thing they have left to eat is cold rainwater soup. "Oh, woe is me!" moans Gram. "'Tis starving we are." And then she blames it on the child's laziness...

But the book is setting up a fanciful solution, since the girl proposes she can catch a leprechaun. ("Agh, Gram, hush your nagging...!") It's a very Irish solution, and even the story's dialogue is written with an Irish dialect. "He's bound to tell where he's hidden his gold, and 'tis rich for life we'll be."

"Is it raving you are, girl? To capture a leprechaun is no easy thing!"

Lorna Balian wrote and illustrated the story, and she accomplishes a lot of different things. She strives for authenticity, but still tries to set a gentle tone. Her illustrations are soft black-and-white drawings that show simplified sketches of the characters and their reactions. And of course, she's imagined an original plot to tie it all together. It's a story about a family with a problem - and their adventure with a leprechaun.

Ninny Nanny catches a leprechaun, and carries it - squirming and kicking - to tie up in a potato sack. He reveals where his treasure is hidden - under a big pile of straw. But when Ninny Nanny has shoveled away all the straw, onto the roof for safe keeping, the leprechaun remembers that he'd actually hidden his treasure somewhere else - under a pile of branches.  Ninny Nanny moves the branches, stacking up inside her front door. But then the leprechaun changes his story again.

"Hidden under the tree it was, but I remember now that I moved it to a safer place..."

It's a story that teaches a lesson - or at least, finds a funny solution to the problem. The last hiding place for the gold is the potato patch, and to locate it, the girl has to harvest all her potatoes. She also ends up with a stack of branchy firewood, plus a roof that's covered with fresh straw. In the end the leprechaun still wriggled away with all of his gold.

But he's still managed to teach them a valuable lesson!

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