Finn MacCoul and His Fearless Wife: A Giant of a Tale from Ireland

Finn MacCoul and His Fearless Wife: A Giant of a Tale from Ireland

Written and Illustrated by: Robert Byrd
Published by: Dutton Children's Books 1999
Grades: 2-4
Genre: Folklore

Synopsis: This is an Irish folktale that tells the story of a giant named Finn MacCoul.  Finn MacCoul, who can see the future, lives at the top of Knockmany Hill so he can keep an eye out on the Scottish bully, Cucullin.   Since Finn is the tallest giant in Ireland and many think he is the most powerful, he becomes the target of Cucullin.  Finn tells his wife, Oonagh, and together they must come up with a plan so he does not get beaten up.  Oonagh devises a plan to have Finn pretend to be his own baby son when Cucullin comes.  Finn is able to trick him as a result and make him powerless when he loses his golden finger, the source of his strength.   


Theme/Skill: Ireland, Folklore, Finn MacCoul, Fear, Power, Outwit.
Message: Sometimes you can overcome something or someone without using your strength.

About the Author: Robert Boyd

"The most important thing is to have the small world I create in a picture perfectly match the words of the story, so that even if it is a make-believe world in the eyes and minds of the readers, everything you see is real."

Robert Byrd was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey.  He studied at the Philadelphia Museum College of Art.  He has been both an author and illustrator of many children’s books for over 30 years.  He has illustrated over sixteen children’s books including Finn MacCoul and His Fearless Wife, The Bear and the Bird King, Leonardo, Saint Francis, Barbarians, and Kubla Khan.   and many of his pieces of artwork have been displayed in many museums.  He teaches Children’s Book illustration at The University of the Arts and Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia.  He has a wife, two grown children and a cat.  He currently resides in Haddonfield, New Jersey.

Source used: http://www.robertbyrdart.com/byrd/about.html

Pre-Reading Activities: Give children clues to a different riddle to get to the word “Folktale.”  Ask students what a folktale is and where they come from.  Put the correct definition of a folktale up on the board and tell how they usually have an underlying message in them. 

Post Reading Activites: As a whole group, we will brainstorm what the underlying message of Finn MacCoul and His Fearless wife is. Then students will use the message to explain in a paragraph how it could be helpful to them someday. As an ongoing activity, the children can find their own folktale story to bring in to share with the class.  

Reflection: love how this is a very comical story. It made me laugh as I read through it because you would never think that such a story would use such an event to overcome a situation. I think Byrd did a great job using humor to relay a message to the audience. Byrd uses his illustrations to capture the audience and keep them engaged as the story is a little lengthy. He doesn't make the words the focus of the page but rather the illustrations. He uses vibrant colors and has the picture take up the whole page without any white space. I think this story line will be good for children to learn about folklore and fables that are passed down in different cultures. 

The Lion and The Mouse

 

The Lion and The Mouse
Written and Illustrated By: Jerry Pinkney
Published by: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers 2009
Grades: PK-2

Genre: Fables, Folkore, Stories without Words

2010 Caldecott Medal Winner

Synopsis:

This book is based on the Aesop fable, “The Lion and the Mouse.”  This book is a wordless version of the fable which uses only little animal sounds such as “Rrrr”, “Squeak, Squeak, Squeak” and “Who.”  The illustrations depict the fable where a mouse accidently disturbs a lion from his rest and is in the grasp of the lion.  The lion decides to release his prey and let him go leaving the mouse devoted to him.  Later on the lion falls into a trap and the mouse remembers his debt to the lion.  The mouse goes and frees the lion from the poacher’s trap as a result.  The mouse proves that even small creatures are capable of great deeds.  The illustrations use full-color artwork using pencil, watercolor and colored pencils on paper. 

Theme/Skill: It carries the message of how the meek can trump the mighty. It allows children to use their imagination and context clues of the pictures to tell the story and what happens in it.

About the Author and Illustrator:  Jerry Pinkney

Jerry Pinkney grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and is one of six children.  At age four or five, Jerry started drawing and loved the compliments and attention he would get from it.  He was never a good reader or adept speller, but drawing helped him build confidence.  He attended an all-black elementary where he learned a tremendous amount about his culture.  He attended Dobbins Vocational High School where he began his formal art training.  When he graduated he received a scholarship to the Philadelphia Museum College of Art.  His work today is influenced greatly by Charles White, Romare Bearden, and Jacob Lawrence, all African American artists.  When completing his illustrations, he uses models and takes photos of them to reference body language and facial expressions, and keeps hundreds of books on nature and animals as references.  Pinkney has illustrated over one hundred books since 1964.  He has received five Coretta Scott King Award and four Coretta Scott King honors.  books including The Ugly Duckling, John Henry, The Nightingale, Noah’s Ark, and Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.  His illustrations for The Lion & The Mouse received the Caldecott Medal in 2010.  He currently lives with his wife, Gloria Jean, in Westchester County, NY. 

Source used: http://www.jerrypinkneystudio.com/frameset.html

Pre-Reading Activities:  Show the cover of the book:  Tell the children that this book is based on Aesop's fable.  Read them the fable so they have the background knowledge of what is going to happen.  Ask student's what they think the message of the book is, if they do not, say something along the lines of: "That sometimes even the smallest person can help you out and be your friend."

Aesop's Fable

Then tell the children that the book we are going to look at is different from most books, it has no words in the book, but rather tells a story through their pictures.  Children will take turns telling the story of what is happening in each picture.  The teacher will remind them of Aesop's fable and keep them on track with the story as they go through each picture. 

Post-Reading Activities:  Ask children what they had to use to tell the story if there were no words?  Have them brainstorm what they used.  Then give each child a different page from the book that is copied.  Tell them to come up with at least 2 sentences to go along with the picture.  They can use the word wall to help them write certain words and if they do not know how to spell a word they can sound it out.  When they are done, they will bring it to the teacher for approval.  If they are finished and given permisson they can choose one of the coloring pages from below to color while the others finish. 

Mouse coloring page
Lion coloring page

Reflection: The illustrations of this book are outstanding.  The colors used just accentuate the pictures so much and allow readers to focus in on them.  The pictures do an excellent job telling the story since it is a wordless book.  It does include some animal noises at times to show the emphasis of the animals and the strengths or weaknesses that they have.  I think this book is good for children who are just starting to become readers and for others who are learning to focus on the comprehension of stories.  For beginning readers, since it does not have words it does not intimidate them and steer them away from using their imaginations.  It doesn't have them become frustrated trying to figure out words.  For those learning to focus on comprehension, it helps those students learn that pictures can be clues of what the story is about and allow readers to use them as references when deciphering words in other books.