The Leprechaun's Kingdom: The World of Banshees, Fairies, Demons, Giants, Monsters, Mermaids, Phoukas, Vampires, Werewolves, Witches, and Many Others

This book is fun, informative, and quite enjoyable.As mentioned in the title, this is a collection of anecdotes and short tales, with charming illustrations. Here are changelings, daoine sidh, water sheerie. Little cluricaunes who hide in your cellar and drink your beer. The headless dullahan. The magical land of Tir-Nan-Og. While not a book for younger children, this book should be easily readable for people interested in folk tales or Irish legend. Each entry has a synopsis of the creature in question, and a short story, including such tales as "Fann MacCuil and the Scotch Giant" (about a wily Irish giant who takes on a well-armed Scotch giant), "Far Darrig in Donegal" (about a tinker), "The Werewolves of Ossory" (about a couple cursed to take wolf form for seven years, at the end of which two others take the curse), "The Amadan Mor and the Gruagach" (one of the stranger tales, about a man who loses his legs and gains them back again).This book is full of illustrations, all of them in black and white. Includes medieval woodcuts, Victorian art, and contemporary art.(Four and a half stars, rounded up.)