by Moe Zilla

Created on: August 27, 2010

Jamie O'Rourke "was the laziest man in all of Ireland," but when his wife tries to wake him up, he's ready with an excuse.  ("I'm not sleeping... Sure, I was sittin' here thinkin'.") Unfortunately, he falls asleep again before their conversation is over, and he even starts snoring. I was impressed that author Tomie DePaola had recreated an authentic-sounding Irish dialect. But I also worried his book would revisit some uncomfortable forgotten stereotypes about the Irish.

Tomie DePaola was 66 years old when he wrote and illustrated this book in 2000, and he even dedicates it to "my two Irish buddies, John Sullivan and Kim 'O'Sutherland'." DePaola has won both the Caldecott and Newberry honor awards, according to Wikipedia, and has written and illustrated over 200 children's picture books. He drew sunny and bright illustrations for this book, using liquid acrylic on handmade Fabriano paper. He's obviously lavished a lot of care and attention on this story, so I'd hate to wrongly sacrifice it to the gods of political correctness.

"What are ye doing, woman?" Jamie complains when his wife wakes him up. "Can't you see I'm right in the middle of solvin' a great problem...? Well, now that all the fine thoughts I was havin' have clear flown out of me head, you might as well tell me what's goin' on." She'd been trying to tell him that she's going to visit her sister's family to help with their new baby, so she explains it again, "for the fortieth time, most likely."

But before she leaves, she cleans the cottage and cooks "all kinds of good things" for Jamie. "All you'll have to do is the washin' up each night and give a quick swipe of the broom every now and then." If I were really being politically correct, I'd worry that the household chores seem to fall almost exclusively to Jamie's wife. But Jamie assures her that he'll take good care of things, "so you won't even know you've been away."

Then his three "cronies" show up - named Patrick, Michael, and Seamus - with a big jug of cider. In the next illustration, they've all got a mug in their hand - Seamus holding his lazily so it's almost ready to drip on the floor.  They're seated around a table that's festively decorated with all of Jamie's food, and it looks like a very festive night. "They had themselves a fine old time laughing and eating until it was time to go home."

At this point Jamie should do the dishes, "but the mere sight of the messy cottage made him the most tired man in all of Ireland, as well as the laziest." But just then, a magical Pooka shows up to save the day - a donkey-like creature that's being punished for his own lifetime of laziness. An "author's note" at the back of the book explains that Pooka stories appear in the folk tales that were collected by William Butler Yeats. It's another example of the thoughtful intent that went into this story.

Even if there's a few passages that - if I were the author - I would probably have written differently...

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