Product Description

This lighthearted Irish tale of magic, greed, and revenge from Caldecott Medal-winning illustrator Gerald McDermott reminds us that a bit of good luck is never out of reach-as long as you look for the wee folk. When poor and jobless Tim O'Toole discovers a group of wee folk, he knows his bad luck has changed forever. But before he can enjoy the treasures they give him, Tim has to learn an important lesson.

Spirited and humorous illustrations reveal the world of the wee folk, along with Tim O'Toole and his family.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #69787 in Books
• Published on: 1992-02-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 32 pages

From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3-- In this version of the old European tale, "The Table, the Ass, and the Stick," Tim O'Toole is so poor that his neighbors avoid him, fearing his bad luck will rub off on them. His fortune seems made, though, when he spies a band of the wee folk and demands a part of their treasure. Given a goose that lays golden eggs, Tim is unable to refrain from boasting to the greedy McGoons, who substitute their own goose for Tim's. The same thing happens to Tim's next gift, but a third gift, a hat that produces ten little men armed with tiny clubs, solves the problem. As he did in Daniel O'Rourke (Viking, 1986), McDermott has produced a rollicking tale, filled with sly Irish humor. Cheerfully vivid illustrations perfectly match the spirit of the story. Done in what appears to be chalk or pastels, the pictures are as soft and green as an Irish morning, without a hard edge or jarring note to be found. McDermott's language subtly captures the lilt and rhythm of an Irish brogue, making this an effortless read-aloud and a fine choice for programming. It's almost as good as a trip to the Emerald Isle. --Linda Boyles, Alachua County Library District, Gainesville, FL
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Card catalog description
A very poor Irishman is provided with magical things by the "wee folk," but he must then keep his good fortune out of the hands of the greedy McGoons.

About the Author
Gerald McDermott is an award-winning illustrator and animator. His book Arrow to the Sun won the Caldecott Medal in 1975.

Customer Reviews

Excellent Wee Folk Tale for Little Ones...
This is a fantastic little book that is a joy to read and to share with the young and young at heart. The familiar story is well-told, but what really brings the tale to life is the exquisite illustration. Nearly every page offers a warm, colorful, and appropriate visual for the action, and the visuals are definitely very Irish in feel. The pictured food looks good enough to eat! LOL :) You can almost hear the wee people singing and dancing.

Young children will enjoy the story because the characters are well-defined, and they appear approachable--not scary, unpleasant, or weird. They are cheerful with their gentle, rosy, expressive faces. Even the naughty McGoons as they gleefully appropriate Tim O'Toole's magical prizes!

This is a beautiful book well worth the purchase.

The Luck of an Unlikely Hero
Tim O'Toole is not exactly an admirable man. He's a lazy man. He's a man who sits around "bemoaning" his fate as he watches his children and wife grow thin from the hunger on them. Even the mice in the house are starving and the cat hasn't energy enough to chase them. It isn't until his wife, Kate, demands that he go off and earn some money that he rouses himself to knock on doors looking for work. So, it's not though any effort of his that his fortune is made, but rather through a chance meeting with a group of "wee folk," or fairies, while he is busily engaged in resting.
From them he demands treasure, and they give it in the form of a goose that lays golden eggs, but so feckless a man is Tim O'Toole that he allows a neighbor couple to cheat him out of it. The little people then give him a tablecloth that is always filled with food, but fool that he is, he is cheated out of that as well. The little people even help him get back at the folks who cheated him.
Was ever a man less deserving of reward than Tim O'Toole? Not likely. Yet, lazy and useless as he is, he ends up a well-to-do man of means and is the envy of all his neighbors, all on account of his luck.
It is a charming story and wittily told, and, because of the unlikely hero of the tale, about as Irish a storyline as one can get.
A large part of the charm of the story is the wonderful pencil drawings, rich in texture and color, and evocative in their composition. Each character is distinct and fully realized. It is in the drawings that one gets the sense that, although a worthless fellow, Tim O'Toole is warm and lovable for all that.
Highly recommended for ages 3-8.

Happy St. Paddy's to our 4 year-old and 2 year -old grandkids!
With so many long-time traditional holidays being pushed to the wayside to be replaced by those more currently popular and politically correct, we are always looking for ways to celebrate and anchor traditions with our grandchildren. To help our pre-school grandbabies get a little more anchored with their Irish heritage, we thought they were old enough this year to be introduced to the connections of this special cultural holiday. "Tim O'Toole and the Wee Folk" was just the answer. Woven within the adventure of this tale of the very Irish Tim O'Toole are subtle but effective lessons about the benefits the moral values we hold dear, the outcome of choices made, and no small amount of fun, courtesy of the fanciful Wee Folk. To include in the package with this book and a strip of four-leaf clover stickers and green T-shirts, we also purchased from Amazon the "RiverDance" CD. We hear our grandkids were delighted with the whimsy of our gift and asked for the story of Tim O'Toole to be read twice before bed on March 17. Happy St. Patrick's Day!