Blurb: A long time ago, before you were born, or your grandmother was born, or your grandmother's mother before her, in a land far away, lived Olan. Olan's evil father is a magician and Olan has been born with a heart of ice. When he marries a beautiful woman called Nuala, Olan casts a terrible spell upon her children. But as his icy heart starts to melt, he realizes what he has done and he sets out to bring his family back together.
Olan marries Nuala who has lost her young husband - he has drowned and she is left with her four children - Connor, Cormac, Liam and Fionnuala. His jealousy of the love their mother shows the children allows his magician father to send a dreadful curse from far away:
"Three years you must spend under the cruel spell of my father. One year as swans, a second as blackbirds and third as ducks. Only then will you regain your human form."
Olan decides he and Nuala cannot stay on the island of Inchageela but with every move to a new place the birds - either swans, blackbirds or ducks, follow them. Each move is motivated by jealousy until finally Nuala is able to explain she can love Olan and at the same time also love her children - who now are able to return to her in human form and joy of joys there is a new baby in the family too.
I have been helping a friend in her two school libraries with stocktake (inventory) and also weeding (culling) her collections especially the fiction, picture books and lately the short chapter books. That is where I found this strange book. It is an old book published in 1998 but it is in really good condition mainly because Faber and Faber used really good paper. This is a slim book with only 47 illustrated pages but I think it would better suit an older audience of readers aged 10+.
This story is based on an Irish folk tale and it also has strong links to one of my most favourite fairy tales - The Wild swans.
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