Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Fin M’Coul, the Giant of Knockmany Hill by Tomie de Paola

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! You know, this year my library decided to reassess our holidays and in the course of things St. Patrick’s Day got booted from the roster. Why? Because, to be perfectly frank, the number of decent St. Patrick’s Day books that come out for kids in a given year is next to none. Smaller than small. For that reason (and because we’ve covered SO MANY of the usual suspects on our podcast already) I decided to turn once again to the classic fable of Finn McCool or Fin M’Coul or however you like to spell it. Episode 307 was the last time we tackled this particular folktale, and that book was Finn MacCoul and his Fearless Wife by Robert Byrd. How will this book differ? Is it better? Worse? The same? Find out!

Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it through iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, PlayerFM, Audible, Amazon Music, or your preferred method of podcast selection.

Show Notes:

My book is out tomorrow! Pop! Goes the Nursery Rhyme! Find yourself a copy!

And here is the clown book I couldn’t get my hands on.

I allude to the latest Tomie dePaola book during our podcast. I interviewed its illustrator Barbara McClintock about the book not so long ago. You can read it all here.

This horse man… he’s seen things. Clearly he needs some kind of therapy.

There’s one on the back of the book as well.

I got oddly fond of the tiny leprechauns and fairies in the margins of this book as well.

A drop spindle! Interesting. Any idea how accurate is this, folks? Shouldn’t there be roving going to her fingers? Still, looks pretty good to me overall.

Tonight, the part of Cucullin will be played by… Danny DeVito.

I legitimately love this image of Fin M’Coul running for the high hills as Cucullin knocks the crap out of some random other giant.

Remember the leprechauns? They apparently just chill in the giants’ home all the time.

It’s cool how the cat is hanging out on Fin’s foot. Then again, the cat looks like it’s almost the same size as the sheep. Depth is hard to determine here, though.

Tomie dePaola was such a cool artist. I mean, he’ll just casually put something like this odd (and probably authentic) candleholder in the frame and hope you notice it.

For this plan to work, Oonagh needs to have already had giant baby clothes and a giant cradle just ready and waiting to be used. I love that she did. THAT is a prepared woman!

Again, love how those leprechauns hide from Cucullin under the giant cradle.

Don’t Let the Pigeon Fight Cucullin.

Kate Recommends: The nice clerks at Trader Joe’s

Betsy Recommends: A Real Pain

Filed under: Fuse 8 n' Kate