Wednesday Review

O’Shaughnessey A Boy and His Leprechaun by Jeremy McGuire

Bobby Mahoney awakens one morning to find a strange little man sitting on his bedpost. Thus begins the adventures. Seven year-old Bobby is going through a very tough time at the moment. His mom and dad have just recently divorced and he knows that if his younger sister, Maggie, had not been born, then this never would have happened. Now he’s seeing Leprechauns. Is he mad?

Well, maybe a little. But the nighttime adventures with O’Shaughnessey make up for the uncertainty of his daytime life. When Maggie becomes deathly ill with scarlet fever, Bobby is forced to admit how much he loves his sister and is suddenly taking on the Ban-Shees and the Deathcoach to save the young girl’s life. Will he succeed before it’s too late? And will this life and death experience open the eyes of his parents and bring their family back together?

Jeremy McGuire does a fabulous job of introducing the reader to a piece of Irish Folklore with in his book, O’Shaughnessey A Boy and His Leprechaun. I can honestly say that I learned a lot about the magical world in this story. The only ones I had heard about the Ban-Shees were the scary one that keep you awake at night. It was very refreshing to see a lighter side to the tale. Although the book had some words that were quite hard to pronounce, I had a blast taking on an Irish brogue as I read the story to my son. He actually enjoyed it as much as I did, even with the more serious threads of the divorced parents and a sick sister. The adventures of Bobby and O’Shaughnessey will keep a child’s attention as the secondary stories teach a lesson of acceptance and understanding. I would recommend this book to anyone with children.