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The Fog Catcher's Daughter
A brave young girl rows out to meet her destiny in a lavishly illustrated original tale steeped in fairy lore, from a traditional Irish storyteller.
A daughter embarks on a perilous journey to rescue her father in this beautiful, eerie, and timeless original folktale. Eily and her father live in Ireland, three fields from the sea, within sight of the enchanted isle of Lisnashee. The fairy folk who live there cause mischief and harm to any who trespass, but once a year at Midsummer, Eily's father, the Fog Catcher, rows out to collect magic from the fog around the island. His sole protection is a charm tucked in his pocket, and when Eily finds the lost charm in a hedgerow after he departs, she knows at once what she must do. Haunting watercolor paintings evoke the beauty of the Irish coastline in an imaginative coming-of-age tale about honoring the past and taking courage with an open heart.
A daughter embarks on a perilous journey to rescue her father in this beautiful, eerie, and timeless original folktale. Eily and her father live in Ireland, three fields from the sea, within sight of the enchanted isle of Lisnashee. The fairy folk who live there cause mischief and harm to any who trespass, but once a year at Midsummer, Eily's father, the Fog Catcher, rows out to collect magic from the fog around the island. His sole protection is a charm tucked in his pocket, and when Eily finds the lost charm in a hedgerow after he departs, she knows at once what she must do. Haunting watercolor paintings evoke the beauty of the Irish coastline in an imaginative coming-of-age tale about honoring the past and taking courage with an open heart.
48 pages, Paperback
Published June 1, 2023
About the author
Marianne McShane
4 books8 followersMarianne McShane is a former children's librarian and a seanchaí, a traditional Irish storyteller. She grew up on the east coast of Ireland and especially loves to tell folktales and fairy tales from her native land. Rónán and the Mermaid: A Tale of Old Ireland is her first book for children. She lives in Ireland, on the same shore where this story took place.
Visit Marianne at www.mariannemcshane.com
Visit Marianne at www.mariannemcshane.com
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
July 27, 2022
the illustrations are incredible and the story is interesting, but i think it's too long for the intended age group. could almost work better as a novel?
September 15, 2022
4.5. Gorgeously illustrated and beautifully written.
April 6, 2023
In Marianne McShane's (and set sometime in Irish past) original fairy tale The Fog Catcher's Daughter (which was on the long list for the 2023 Kate Greenaway Medal for Alan Marks' accompanying illustrations but did not end up making it to the short list), main protagonist Eily and her father (the Fog Catcher's daughter and the Fog Catcher of the book title) live in a small village by the sea (and with no mother) not far from the mysterious island of Lisnashee (which is home to the fairy folk, who are known to the villagers, to the Irish as the Good People, but yes, these fairies are certainly not universally good-natured, and are actually majorly ambiguous in nature, trickster like and can thus be both helpful and also harmful, even at times dangerous, depending on the fairies' mood and whether they are feeling disrespected and slighted). But Eily’s father with his job as the village's Fog Catcher must regularly, must venture annually by boat to Lisnashee to gather magical fog water, a potentially perilous undertaking, but the villagers rely on this fog water for charms, cures and protection, particularly from the Good People, from the wiles and the tricks of the fairies. However, this year, Eily's father accidentally makes the trip to Lisnashee without his charm meant to ward off fairy spells and interference, leaving Eily in The Fog Catcher's Daughter to follow her father to the island to rescue and to protect him (and to make sure that not only her father is safe but also that the precious magical fog water makes its way from Lisnashee to the village so that the apothecary Wise Annie can make her necessary cures and protective charms, and which also must of course then last for an entire year).
And basically but wonderfully, The Fog Catcher's Daughter is simply a typical questing type of tale, with Eily acting and functioning as the heroine, her father as the individual requiring rescuing, and with the fairies providing the magical and potentially threatening obstacles that need to be overcome for Eily to succeed. But for me, what makes The Fog Catcher's Daughter so textually special and delightful is that although Marianne McShane's story is an original composition (and is thus what would be called a Kunstmärchen, a composed fairy tale penned by a named author), McShane obviously makes ample use of traditional Irish fairy lore, so that her text for The Fog Catcher's Daughter does in fact feel very much like a folk tale that has been passed down through the generations, a story orally recounted to a gathering of both children and adults gathered to listen (textually filled with rich sensory descriptions, to be sure, but with Marianne McShane always keeping the narrative tone and feel of The Fog Catcher's Daughter attuned to folklore and thus very much and nicely traditional, and with an author’s note providing a bit of a glimpse into the Irish folklore traditions regarding fairies that underpin The Fog Catcher's Daughter, as well as the real-life Moroccan practice of fog catching that inspired McShane to create this story),
Finally but definitely not in any way least, Alan Marks’ accompanying water-colour illustrations for The Fog Catcher's Daughter, they not only totally and wonderfully descriptively mirror (and sometimes also visually expand on) Marianne McShane's printed words, they also visually very much demonstrate how the Goods People, how Irish fairies are both beautiful and dangerous, how they provide both support and also something uncanny and eerily threatening (with Alan Marks at times depicting his fairies as wisplike clouds and then as ghostlike but almost solid and threatening entities). And furthermore, Marks' pictures, they are to and for me so ethereal and so aesthetically captivating that I almost want to take the depicted images (and which create a delightful feeling of both realism and fantasy) out of the book, out of The Fog Catcher's Daughter and hang them on my bedroom walls. An absolutely spectacular, marvellous and delightfully successful in every way combination of Marianne McShane's text and Alan Marks' images, for me The Fog Catcher's Daughter rates solidly and gloriously with five stars, is highly recommended to and for folk and fairly tale enthusiasts (both young and old), and with me actually also being rather majorly annoyed that The Fog Catcher's Daughter did not end up making it to the short list for the Kate Greenaway Medal.
And basically but wonderfully, The Fog Catcher's Daughter is simply a typical questing type of tale, with Eily acting and functioning as the heroine, her father as the individual requiring rescuing, and with the fairies providing the magical and potentially threatening obstacles that need to be overcome for Eily to succeed. But for me, what makes The Fog Catcher's Daughter so textually special and delightful is that although Marianne McShane's story is an original composition (and is thus what would be called a Kunstmärchen, a composed fairy tale penned by a named author), McShane obviously makes ample use of traditional Irish fairy lore, so that her text for The Fog Catcher's Daughter does in fact feel very much like a folk tale that has been passed down through the generations, a story orally recounted to a gathering of both children and adults gathered to listen (textually filled with rich sensory descriptions, to be sure, but with Marianne McShane always keeping the narrative tone and feel of The Fog Catcher's Daughter attuned to folklore and thus very much and nicely traditional, and with an author’s note providing a bit of a glimpse into the Irish folklore traditions regarding fairies that underpin The Fog Catcher's Daughter, as well as the real-life Moroccan practice of fog catching that inspired McShane to create this story),
Finally but definitely not in any way least, Alan Marks’ accompanying water-colour illustrations for The Fog Catcher's Daughter, they not only totally and wonderfully descriptively mirror (and sometimes also visually expand on) Marianne McShane's printed words, they also visually very much demonstrate how the Goods People, how Irish fairies are both beautiful and dangerous, how they provide both support and also something uncanny and eerily threatening (with Alan Marks at times depicting his fairies as wisplike clouds and then as ghostlike but almost solid and threatening entities). And furthermore, Marks' pictures, they are to and for me so ethereal and so aesthetically captivating that I almost want to take the depicted images (and which create a delightful feeling of both realism and fantasy) out of the book, out of The Fog Catcher's Daughter and hang them on my bedroom walls. An absolutely spectacular, marvellous and delightfully successful in every way combination of Marianne McShane's text and Alan Marks' images, for me The Fog Catcher's Daughter rates solidly and gloriously with five stars, is highly recommended to and for folk and fairly tale enthusiasts (both young and old), and with me actually also being rather majorly annoyed that The Fog Catcher's Daughter did not end up making it to the short list for the Kate Greenaway Medal.
April 9, 2024
Living along the Irish coast, across the water from the fairy-haunted isle of Lisnashee, Eily was the daughter of her village's fog catcher—a brave man who set out once a year, on Midsummer day, to harvest fairy water from beads of mist on the island. One year, when her father accidentally left behind Wise Annie's protection charm, always carried with him on his dangerous trip, Eily set out in pursuit, determined to restore the charm to her father, and if necessary, to rescue him from the wild and sometimes malicious enchantment of the fairies...
Published in 2022, The Fog Catcher's Daughter is the first book I have read from Irish seanchaí (traditional storyteller) and former children's librarian Marianne McShane, although it is her second book published, following up her retelling of a traditional story in Rónán and the Mermaid: A Tale of Old Ireland . Here the story is an original fairy-tale, inspired (according to the author's note) by the Copeland Islands, off the coast of Donaghdee, in County Down. In any case, leaving all of that aside, I found both McShane's story and illustrator Alan Marks' accompanying watercolor artwork absolutely lovely! The two-page spread in which Eily is rowing toward the island, navigating her way through a whirlpool with the help of a blessing, looking behind her as she rows, is particularly striking, although all of the visuals are beautiful. I will definitely be tracking down McShane's earlier book, as well as other work from Marks. Recommended to picture book audiences looking for magical stories and beautiful vistas, as well as to those seeking tales with an Irish cultural background.
Published in 2022, The Fog Catcher's Daughter is the first book I have read from Irish seanchaí (traditional storyteller) and former children's librarian Marianne McShane, although it is her second book published, following up her retelling of a traditional story in Rónán and the Mermaid: A Tale of Old Ireland . Here the story is an original fairy-tale, inspired (according to the author's note) by the Copeland Islands, off the coast of Donaghdee, in County Down. In any case, leaving all of that aside, I found both McShane's story and illustrator Alan Marks' accompanying watercolor artwork absolutely lovely! The two-page spread in which Eily is rowing toward the island, navigating her way through a whirlpool with the help of a blessing, looking behind her as she rows, is particularly striking, although all of the visuals are beautiful. I will definitely be tracking down McShane's earlier book, as well as other work from Marks. Recommended to picture book audiences looking for magical stories and beautiful vistas, as well as to those seeking tales with an Irish cultural background.
March 6, 2023
The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous. The story is interesting as well, but I was confused by the depiction of the fairies. I wasn't sure if they were supposed to be a force for good or for evil.
I spoke to someone who knows a bit about the fairy folk in Irish folklore, and he said that the reason they are called the "Good People" is because they are actually tricksters who do a lot of mischief, some of it very dangerous for humans, and therefore humans try to appease them by calling them that. I think the author should have included a more detailed explanation to clear up this possible confusion, in a "Forward" or "Afterward". Examples of the mischief they can cause should have been provided outside of the story about Eily and her father. In addition, terms such as 'brindled" and "currach" could have been defined in a separate section. Then the book would have been way more accessible, especially for little ones.
As it is, readers will need to explain "creel", "charm" and "apothecary" to little ones, but that is acceptable. But "brindled" and "currach" should be defined, at the very least, for American readers.
I spoke to someone who knows a bit about the fairy folk in Irish folklore, and he said that the reason they are called the "Good People" is because they are actually tricksters who do a lot of mischief, some of it very dangerous for humans, and therefore humans try to appease them by calling them that. I think the author should have included a more detailed explanation to clear up this possible confusion, in a "Forward" or "Afterward". Examples of the mischief they can cause should have been provided outside of the story about Eily and her father. In addition, terms such as 'brindled" and "currach" could have been defined in a separate section. Then the book would have been way more accessible, especially for little ones.
As it is, readers will need to explain "creel", "charm" and "apothecary" to little ones, but that is acceptable. But "brindled" and "currach" should be defined, at the very least, for American readers.
April 12, 2023
I borrowed this from the library. Other reviewers and goodreads friends seem to have enjoyed this a lot more than me. I found my enjoyment was hampered by seasonal inaccuracies, many books have them but this one had quite a few. Fresh mistletoe (Christmas), fresh Lavendar (June to September) and many other examples of the natural world shown in one week of the year but pictured in stages that would happen over the course of the year.
Also the village shop, that sold magic charms, hagstones and fresh starfish had the appearance of a 'new age' shop decorated with fishing nets and seemed anachronistic, I would guess the story is set about a hundred years ago in a poor community and this shop seemed totally out of place.
As I said, others have enjoyed this and if you can ignore the details above it could be a more enjoyable story.
2.5 stars
Also the village shop, that sold magic charms, hagstones and fresh starfish had the appearance of a 'new age' shop decorated with fishing nets and seemed anachronistic, I would guess the story is set about a hundred years ago in a poor community and this shop seemed totally out of place.
As I said, others have enjoyed this and if you can ignore the details above it could be a more enjoyable story.
2.5 stars
January 15, 2024
What a delight! This, to me, has all the elements of a perfect picture book.
It's a great story, beautifully illustrated. You know the kind where you could look at the picture far longer than it takes to read the text? There's one page inside a shop that gave me all the Hogwarts feels.
I love the little girl's tenacity and independence, as well as the lovely relationship between her and her father.
This is a magical fairy story set in Ireland, and it's full of charm. There's also a great lesson here about conquering our fears when we need to help others. There's another great lesson about how we are stronger than we think.
This is a great read-aloud, and I am excited to share it with my granddaughters!
Note: I was provided a copy in exchange for an honest review.
It's a great story, beautifully illustrated. You know the kind where you could look at the picture far longer than it takes to read the text? There's one page inside a shop that gave me all the Hogwarts feels.
I love the little girl's tenacity and independence, as well as the lovely relationship between her and her father.
This is a magical fairy story set in Ireland, and it's full of charm. There's also a great lesson here about conquering our fears when we need to help others. There's another great lesson about how we are stronger than we think.
This is a great read-aloud, and I am excited to share it with my granddaughters!
Note: I was provided a copy in exchange for an honest review.
May 26, 2023
An original-traditional Irish folk tale -- that's what Marianne McShane has given us in this treasure of a picture book. While artist Alan Marks brings the story to visual life.
"The fairy wind was on the rise."
Oh, so Irish-evocative is this story! My favorite words go:
"She remembered Annie's blessing and chanted,
A smooth way before me, a smooth way before me.
"And sure enough, the little boat righted its course.
Lapwing plowed through the waves to Lisnashee,
and Eily clambered ashore."
In case you're wondering, Goodreaders, the ending of this FIVE STAR book is nothing short of sublime.
"The fairy wind was on the rise."
Oh, so Irish-evocative is this story! My favorite words go:
"She remembered Annie's blessing and chanted,
A smooth way before me, a smooth way before me.
"And sure enough, the little boat righted its course.
Lapwing plowed through the waves to Lisnashee,
and Eily clambered ashore."
In case you're wondering, Goodreaders, the ending of this FIVE STAR book is nothing short of sublime.
June 5, 2023
Brief summary: Eily and her father live on the coast of Ireland across from the isle of fairies, Lisnashee. Her father is the Fog Catcher and must row to the island and collect the magical fog on it every Midsummer. Eily helps prepare to keep her family safe from the Good People. Her father rows out to the island. Eily is worried as she has found his protection charm in a tree.
Young readers will be enchanted by Eily's adventure to find her father and keep him safe. Beautifully illustrated with dreamy watercolors.
Rating: 4.5 /5 📗📗📗📗1/2
Young readers will be enchanted by Eily's adventure to find her father and keep him safe. Beautifully illustrated with dreamy watercolors.
Rating: 4.5 /5 📗📗📗📗1/2
November 10, 2021
This was a well-written story about a brave girl who rescues her father when he is in trouble. The art was very nice; I loved the landscapes and way the fog was illustrated. This story showed a traditional Irish town and customs regarding the fair folk.
I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.
I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.
Read
April 14, 2024An original story in the style of an Irish folk tale, it tells of a young girl who's father collects fog water on a fairy island in the middle of the loch. One day when he doesn't return, Eily is forced to row to the island herself to find her father and bring him home. The watercolor paintings are gorgeous while the text is lyrical and romantic.
October 10, 2022
This book was atmospheric and spooky--A girl's father catches fog on a faerie isle to help the local townspeople. One day he doesn't return from his journey though, and his daughter heads off to save him. I really liked the old-world feel of this.
April 17, 2024
Gorgeously illustrated and rich story. This would be a good text for exploring culture and cultural practices. The afterword by the author was helpful in understanding how the blend of Irish and Moroccan culture/ technologies came together.
July 30, 2024
A new Irish folktale about a young girl, Eily, who braves the fog and waves to row out to an enchanted island when she fears her father is in danger. Watercolor illustrations suit the mood perfectly.
August 12, 2022
Eily braves the seas to find and save her father.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 2, 2022
A lavishly illustrated Irish fairy tale.
March 7, 2023
The illustrations in this book are incredibly beautiful. I found some of the language, as well as the place of fairies to be awkward, unexplained and/confusing.
Read
April 22, 2023Beautiful illustrations (especially the use of color!), ok story
February 28, 2024
I'm not always very interested in stories with fairies. They just don't engage me. But a girl has to rescue her father in this book with a lot of fog in it. The pictures were quite lovely.
October 6, 2024
This was a disappointing read. Too long for a children's book, too, so I don't recommend it.
December 18, 2024
A great book to add to St. Patrick’s Day reads
September 22, 2022
Lovely artwork in this story about fairies and fog catchers.
June 22, 2023
This is stunning. A beautifully woven new legend told in the style of ancient Irish myth and takes us to a timeless time; long ago, but not so long; far away, but just “over there.” Could it still happen today? Maybe; maybe not. The love and care between Eily and her father are exposed in just a few lines and lead us to grasp and understand the feeling that exists with the community, even though we don’t see them. And the fairies! These are fairies at their most fairy-like; wild, irreverent, free tricksters who will cause havoc! Wise Annie is the only other character we meet and acts as a background to the life lived in this little village. The brief glimpse we have of her gives so much; she is a foundation stone. Seemingly ordinary, but practically magical with her shop full of herbs, remedies and charms. Her parting words to Eily, “A smooth way before you, child” is a blessing that echoes throughout the rest of the story. It is as if Annie knows what is about to befall Eily; a wild fairy wind, an upsetting discovery and Eily summoning all her boldness and determination, risking much as she sets off on an uncertain to journey to save her Papa and step into her destiny. It is all so enchanting, but all so real at once.
If the lyrical storytelling paints the pictures in this tale, the illustrations by Alan Marks are the exact pictures they paint. Gorgeous; lyrical in and of themselves; these evocative watercolour illustrations reveal the world we have stepped into with perfection and grace. Every single page is a wonder of changing light, colour, movement…glorious. Enchanting, mystical, warm and loving, bold, quietly adventurous and brave…oh how I love this book!
If the lyrical storytelling paints the pictures in this tale, the illustrations by Alan Marks are the exact pictures they paint. Gorgeous; lyrical in and of themselves; these evocative watercolour illustrations reveal the world we have stepped into with perfection and grace. Every single page is a wonder of changing light, colour, movement…glorious. Enchanting, mystical, warm and loving, bold, quietly adventurous and brave…oh how I love this book!
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews