Gennady Spirin was born and raised in an area of Russia near Moscow. He is one of my favorite illustrators. He lives with his family in Princeton, NJ. I know he sells his exquisite art, commanding well-deserved high prices. If I was rich, I would certainly buy his offerings.

In this tale, the four beautiful children of the king are turned to swans by the wicked, jealous step mother. The swans are given beautiful voices to lure people to capture them. They are captured, netted and slated to fall in the deep ocean. Saved by a whale, they are eventually returned to original form.

On one day of the year, they can return to human form, but cannot touch the ground. In the seventh year of their curse, the step mother prepares a feast for those who support her. Stating that when the twin mountains of their father's kingdom come together, they will be freed. As this is about to occur, their father watches as his children are slated to be killed. Suddenly, the whale named Jasconius slaps the water with his tale creating a huge shape of eagles who arrive to cut the net that bounds the swans.

Wild swans created a bridge connecting the mountains as warriors fought to free the children of the king. The wicked stepmother is banished and never heard from again.

Their are no words to describe the incredible illustrations of Gennady Spirin and his renditions of folk tales, some of which are not well known.

Highly recommended, I give this book a well deserved five stars. Here are some illustrations of the book which I include to encourage you to read the books he illustrates and see the beautiful artistry. ( )

It is a book about the legend of the Children of Lir. There are four children of a king of Ireland, however the king was lonely since the children's mother had died at their birth. Then he married a new women who did not like the children. One day she brought them into the woods and turned them into swans so that she could have the power of the kingdom to herself. Then finally after a long time they had plotted an escape and turned back into much older princes and princesses and they lived happily with their father in the kingdom since his new wife had been banished. Then they lived happily ever after and always thanked the other animals who helped them escape when they were swans.

Another fairy tale about an evil Queen jealous of her stepchildren. This book was loosely based on an Irish folklore. It was written beautifully and the artwork was amazing. I would recommend this to a student if they enjoy fantasy. ( )

Gorgeously illustrated book, with a fairy tale that Shakespeare's King Lear was probably based on ( )

If one is not familiar with the traditional Irish myth/legend of the children of Lir, one might be able to enjoy Sheila MacGill-Callahan's very loose and very much changed retelling without reservations. Both the narrative and the illustrations are charming, evocative of love, jealousy, sadness, adventure (combined with a typical, but clever happily-ever-after fairytale ending). However, although legends and myths undergo many changes, an author should clearly indicate wether his/her retelling, his/her version of a folktale, a legend is a radical departure from known and accepted versions. And in my opinion, with The Children of Lir, Sheila MacGill-Callahan has somewhat failed to do this. Yes, she does indicate in a rather rambling author's note that her reworking of the Fate of the Children of Lir is loosely based on an Irish myth. But her version of the story (with the happy ending, the deus ex machina of the rescuing whale, the different spelling of Aoife's name etc.) is so fundamentally different from traditional Irish lore that it really is no longer only a retelling, but an almost completely original story, one that uses the characters of the original tale (and even with these characters, there are changes), and the general concept of the children of Lir being changed into swans by a jealous stepmother, but not much else. Also, as the Fate of the Children of Lir is considered one of the most sorrowful and poignant tales of Irish folklore, of Irish storytelling (their curse of having to live 900 years as swans, their final release by a Christian monk, their immediate death from old age upon release from said curse), Sheila MacGill-Callahan's version, with its sweet, happy ending, seems almost a bit of an affront to Irish culture and lore (as though the author made use of the general theme but did not really care or understand that some myths, some legends should not be tampered with, should be approached with respect).

As a tale in and of itself, the story is lovely and quite moving, and the illustrations are truly wonderful, stylish, artistic, expressive. However Sheila McGill-Callahan's The Children of Lir seems to have evolved into more of a Central European fairy tale; it no longer appears as the powerfully poignant, sorrowful tale of Irish (Celtic) legend it originally was meant to be. I would still recommend this book to children who enjoy fairy and folk tales, especially stories of children being changed into animals (older children, as there is quite a lot of dense text), but with a major caveat that this retelling of the Fate of the Children of Lir is to be approached more as a stylised "Kunstmärchen" refurbishing of the Irish original. ( )