The Selkie Girl [Hardcover]

Susan Cooper (Author), Warwick Hutton (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1986 | Age Level: 5 and up

"The Celtic legend of a seal maiden, who is captured and wed by a mortal young man, is related again by an author who remains faithful to the spirit and magic of the story but gives it a fullness and inevitability that only a true storyteller can evoke . . . The watercolors . . . blend the homely reality of life on a small, seabound craft with a controlled but intense sense of drama".-- The Horn Book.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The illustrious author and artist have created a haunting version of the Scottish folktale about the selkie. Newbery Medalist Cooper tells the story of a man who falls in love with a woman; she becomes a seal as she swims away. A year later, he steals her sealskin so she cannot leave and makes her his bride. The tale focuses on the longing of the selkie, Mairi, a "wild creature" who goes "back to the wild, in the end." When Mairi accidentally finds out where her husband hid her sealskin, she tells her children she must leave them because she also has children in the sea. Her daughter understands, saying, "You must go to them. It's their turn." The lyrical text weaves a tale of sweeping dimension; this is storytelling at its finest. Particularly lovely are Hutton's sensitive and muted watercolors, which successfully capture the mood evoked by the book's opening and closing sentence: "The islands rise green out of the sea, where the waves roam over the grey rocks, and strange things may happen there."
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 3 Both Mordicai Gerstein (The Seal Mother Dial, 1986) and Susan Cooper have retold the folktale of the Selkie who is forced to live among mortals. In Cooper's version, Donallan falls in love with one of three beautiful naked selkie-maidens that he sees sitting on the rocks. Stealing her sealskin so that she cannot return to the sea, he marries her. Although she bears his five children, whom she loves deeply, she longs for her home and her family in the sea. At last she learns where her skin is hidden and, putting it on, dives joyously into the waves. But every year, Donallan and his children go down to the sea and when they return, there is "a look on their faces like sunlight." Cooper retells this ancient folktale from the coastal regions of Ireland and Scotland in a simple, direct storybook style, which, while lacking some of the exquisite beauty and flowing language of an Eva LaGalliene, still captures enough of the essence to appeal to young readers. Hutton's watercolors match and extend Cooper's narrative in the best traditional "picture story book" fashion, and if both fall slightly short of the haunting and timeless quality possible in such a tale, they still create a story to capture and hold the young. Yet Gerstein's book, grounded in familial love, is the more appealing version. Constance A. Mellon, Department of Library & Information Studies, East Carolina University , Greenville, N.C.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry (October 1, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689503903
• ISBN-13: 978-0689503900
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #592,946 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

SUSAN COOPER is best known for her acclaimed sequence of fantasy novels known as The Dark Is Rising which includes OVER SEA, UNDER STONE; THE DARK IS RISING (1974 Newbery Honor book); GREENWITCH; THE GREY KING (1976 Newbery Award book); and SILVER ON THE TREE. Her novels for young readers also include VICTORY, GREEN BOY, KING OF SHADOWS, THE BOGGART and its sequel THE BOGGART AND THE MONSTER, SEAWARD and DAWN OF FEAR. She has written books for younger children as well, including the Celtic retellings THE SILVER COW, THE SELKIE GIRL, and TAM LIN, all illustrated by Warwick Hutton, and FROG, illustrated by Jane Browne. In collaboration with actor Hume Cronyn, she wrote the Broadway play Foxfire and--for Jane Fonda--the television film The Dollmaker, for which they received the Humanitas Prize in 1985. Born in Buckinghamshire, England, Susan Cooper moved to the United States in 1963 and now lives in Massachusetts.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Strange things may happen here, March 21, 2005

By 

E. R. Bird "Ramseelbird" (Manhattan, NY) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Selkie Girl (Hardcover)

Mermaids get all the good press. Heck, you can't throw a dart in a crowded library without hitting five or six children's books all dedicated to those fishy sea ladies. But what about selkie women? When do they get their due? Few books about selkies actually make them out to be women, as it happens. The men get, "A Stranger Came Ashore" and "Island of the Aunts", for example. Female selkies appear in "Daughter of the Sea", but not much else. So it was with great joy that I located not only a selkie book starring a woman, but a picture book at that. "The Selkie Girl" is your classic tale of abduction, male dominance, and naked women. Everything a picture book could aspire to. It is written by children's literature demi-god Susan Cooper (known best for her "The Dark Is Rising" stories), and illustrated by fellow Brit Warwick Hutton. It is a lovely little work.

Donallan lives alone by the sea with his cat and his dog and his sheep. It's a lonely life and Donallan longs for some company. One day, while scrounging for seaweed, he is enchanted by the song of three lovely naked women singing on a nearby rock. When he tries to investigate, however, they dive into the waves and become seals or selkies. An elderly man living near Donallan tells the young man how to catch one of the women as his bride. He must come on the same day one year from now and before the woman can grab it, steal her seal skin. Then she'll be bound to follow Donallan home. He does, she does, and they have five kids. Until, one day, their youngest son catches his father removing a lovely long sealskin from a mysterious brick behind their house...

Cooper, quite frankly, should do more picture books. This particular one contains all her lovely turns of phrase and particular lilts. Says the first sentence in the book, "The island rise green out of the sea, where the waves foam over the grey rocks, and strange things may happen there". The fact that Cooper has remained faithful to the whole naked chick part of the tale is also impressive. Other authors might have shied away or said the ladies were wearing seaweed garments or some such thing. The tale is a classic one, one told for centuries and not to be tampered with. So yes, this is a book about a man basically forcing someone to be his wife. Therefore, when she escapes back to the sea at the end, you're not particularly sad about it. Some kids reading the book may be a bit perturbed, but picture books should engage children as much as possible.

It is a bit of a pity that Warwick Hutton's illustrations don't convey the mystery of the story particularly well. His watercolors are lovely and majestic, but not particularly detailed. I cannot help but think that the book's editor could have located a more appropriate illustrator somewhere. Ah well. In the end it's the story that matters, and this one is truly lovely. Barbaric, perhaps. But lovely. For a great Irish tale that doesn't necessarily involve leprechauns, try "The Selkie Girl" on for size.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The loss, the finding of the authentic self., February 3, 2002

By 

Turtle (California Coast) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Selkie Girl (Hardcover)

This book was amazing to me the first time I read it and continues to touch me deeply....so much so that I just spent $90. for an old used copy so that I could own it and return to it again and again. It is the story of all women, women who are taken from their true selves to serve others, in places that are foreign to their souls. And, of course, the story of her return. A children's book, but one that speaks to all ages. Magical. Timeless. I have heard that this story has been told in many languages for many hundreds of years. I would welcome any information that anyone has about this.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautifully told folktale, with lovely illustrations, July 23, 2008

By 

Tracy Marks (Arlington, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

In this retelling of this magical Scottish folktale, Mordicai Gerstein and Susan Cooper tell of the Selkie (maiden of the sea) who is compelled to live among mortals. When Donallan sees a beautiful naked selkie on the rocks, he falls in love with her and steals her sealskin so she can no longer live in the sea. He marries her, and she bears him five children. But she longs for her sea home and family. At last she finds her skin, and is able to return to the sea. This lovely book will appeal to all ages - 3-adult. A Publishers Weekly review said of it, "The lyrical text weaves a tale of sweeping dimension; this is storytelling at its finest. Particularly lovely are Hutton's sensitive and muted watercolors."