Customer Reviews

Small Beauties: The Journey of Darcy Heart O'Hara

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This is probably one of the most moving tales in a children's book I have read in recent years. The story is simple but, unfortunately, a common story which affected many generations on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. The time period in which the story takes place in the mid 1840s and the story begins in Ireland. The Great Famine, which more or less started in 1845 and lasted until at least 1851 is the background for the beginning of this saga. Darcy Heart O'Hara is a small girl living in a small house in Ireland. Her parents and Grandparents have a small holding, a small farm, in which they scratch out a meager, at best, living. Darcy is fond of small things, a flower, a pebble, a blade of grass, a bird in flight and his lost feather. All of these things make up Darcy's world as the world as she knows it is crashing around her as the first crop of potatoes fail and then the next. Darcy has the wonderful ability to see beauty where others see only hard work and ruin.

A very large number of Americans (and Canadians) today can trace their roots back to these horrible years in Ireland. It is as much our heritage as it is the Irish. They, in essence, are us. We tend to forget this and seem to be forgetting it more and more as each year passes. This book reintroduces this disaster and, through a child's eye, gives us a glimpse of where many of us come from. The book tells of the families' forced movement from their home by the "Lords in Authority," the burning of their home and possessions, and eventually their immigration to America. I will say at this point that the author has done a wonderful job of telling this story without the horrible details that were actually involved, something I feel would not be particularly good for this age group to read, i.e. the age group targeted by the book. The story conveys the feelings and the trauma, without giving the gory details. This is good.

Through all this, Darcy, the little girl, keeps her small treasures of beauty. We have the telling of wonderful tales by her old grandfather and are able to see the unconquerable courage of a little girl and her people. This is a tale well worth telling and well worth remembering.

The art work is masterfully done in pencil, oil and charcoal by Adam Rex and the pictures alone are worth the price of the book. The text is simple, concise and quite understandable. It goes perfectly with the illustrations.

I do hope that we all have the ability to keep a bit of the burnt hearthstone with us always.
Highly recommend this one!

At its core, "Small Beauties" is a story of heartbreak and loss. It's the fictional tale of a single family, among many, who were displaced by the famine that swept over Ireland's potato fields in 1845 and forced countless starving, poverty-stricken people to emigrate from their beloved green isle.

But this story, written by Elvira Woodruff and lovingly illustrated by Adam Rex, focuses on a young girl, Darcy Heart O'Hara, who is too young to understand the disastrous events around her. She only knows that her family has been evicted, their tiny home burned, and they are headed across the ocean to a new life in America. She knows she will probably never see her grandparents again, and that, more than anything, breaks her heart.

But Darcy has an eye for small beauties, the small things usually overlooked, and she's sewn some of these tiny wonders into the hem of her dress, where they stay throughout the long journey to Manhattan. There, huddled in a cramped room while they prepare to meet their fate, she brings out these tokens and shares with her miserable family small memories of home: a magpie's feather, a bead from her grandmother's broken rosary, a chip of stone from their hearth.

And for one night, at least, it's enough.

Woodruff says in her afterword the story, though fictional, was inspired by the true travails of manufacturing pioneer Henry Ford's grandparents, among others. The story is short, sweet and touching, a reminder of the vital connections to home that can sustain people forced to leave. The large illustrations are painted in warm, subdued colors, giving an expressive human face to the O'Hara family's suffering and joy.

"Small Beauties" is a tiny slice of a very large story, perfectly condensed and presented for young readers who also might miss the grander scope of the Irish Famine.

by Tom Knapp, Rambles.NET editor

Peering through the eyes of a young girl, readers can understand and appreciate the hardships of those in Ireland who endured the potato famine, and ultimately made their way to America. Our children remarked that if it were not for that sad event in history, very few Irish families would have ever made the trip. And although prayers seem to go unanswered, in the end it is providential that so many families did imigrate. This book provides a valuable lesson in history and also a catalyst for interesting conversations.

"Small Beauties: The Journey of Darcy Heart O'Hara" tells the tale of the Irish Potato Famine and resulting mass emigration through one small girl's experience.

Darcy Heart O'Hara is born the seventh child and first girl. "'One day this child shall hold the very heart of our family in the palm of her hand,' Granny predicted. So they named the infant Darcy Heart O'Hara."

Darcy's life on her family's farm is busy and full. She has to take care of the animals and help around the house. The family relaxes to Granddad's stories "of brave heroes on white steeds and moonlit glens filled with little folk and fairy queens." Darcy stands out from the children of her village from the start: "She was a noticer. She stopped to notice small beauties wherever she went."

Darcy picks up the small beauties--pebbles, feathers and flowers--wherever she goes. It's a simple life filled with beauty. But then the crops fail, two times in a row. The family is evicted and their cottage destroyed. The family has no choice. They take the voyage to American offered to them. Heartbreakingly, Granny and Granddad stay behind:

"Later that day, Darcy took one last walk with Granny down Derry Lane. ''Tis a big ocean that will soon be between us,' Granny whispered, a tear rolling down her wrinkled cheek. 'And the years will come and go like so many waves upon the shore. I'm countin' on you, my girl, you who notice so much. With all those small beauties you keep, here is one more.' She pressed the worn bead back into Darcy's hand. 'Help the other to remember, and not just the sadness, the hurt, and the hunger. Help them to remember all the beauty they left behind.'"

The worn bead? A bead from Granny's rosary destroyed when the Crown burned down the O'Hara's cottage. Okay. I dare you not to cry reading that aloud to a child.

Darcy's small beauties--a stone from their cottage, the bead, heather, etc.--help their family adjust in the new world. They bring back Graddad's stories, Granny's humming, and the sights, sounds, and smells of home.

Elvira Woodruff's text is at once lyrical and direct, and Adam Rex's illustrations are simply beautiful. Small Beauties is most appropriate for children ages seven and up due to subject matter and reading level. It's also highly recommended.

This book was absolutely one of the finest children's books I have had the pleasure to read. The author captured the very essence of Irish country life under oppressive English rule; however, as sad as the story was,it focused on the strong faith and incredible courage of the Irish. In, addition, I could identify with the story as my grandparents had a similar experience almost 100 years later. Kudos to the author, Elvira Woodruff.

I thought this was a wonderful book. The descriptions were very vivid and explains a family leaving their home in Ireland during the potato famine. It makes the reader feel for the family and the troubles they have gone through. But it also tells you to look for the small beauties in things. Darcy, the main character in the book does look for the small beauties in life, and she takes them out when her family has come to America and is living in a crampt city cellar. These wonderful treasures take her back to happier times. The authors note about the Henry Ford coming to America and returning to Ireland a wealthy man showed the American dream coming true.

I thought this was an especially good story to use with children in describing an immigrant's journey. In this materialistic world of ours it's refreshing to find a book that still values family, home, and hearth. I also think the journey the family makes from Ireland to America gives children a true picture of what the Irish immigrants had to sacrifice to come to this country. I loved the author's poetic telling and the satisfying ending, with the story coming full circle with Darcy bringing her treasures to her new home.

This is a charming book with beautiful illustrations. The important theme told from a child's perspective adds to the poignancy.

Darcy Heart O'Hara was a noticer. Living with her family in the townland of Pobble O'Keefe, Ireland in 1845, Darcy noticed the things that her busy, hardworking family missed. She saw the dew-covered spider web across her bucket's rim and she often stopped gathering eggs to watch the cloud castles pass. Though she lacked pockets, Darcy would secret away "small beauties" such as pebbles, flowers, and butterfly wings in the hem of her dress. As the potato crops failed and the others in her family saw only the devastating effects of the poverty and loss that followed, Darcy continued to collect the small beauties of her landscape. After the landlord burns the family's cottage and they are forced to accept the Crown's passage to America, it is Darcy's collection, pulled from the hem of her dress that brings the family the solace of memory of Ireland.

Inspired by a story about Henry Ford retrieving his family's hearthstone from Ireland and installing in his home in America, Elvira Woodruff's fictional immigration story is one to which many of us can relate. Rich illustrations by Adam Rex that evoke the time period of the Great Famine, help make Small Beauties an excellent introduction to issues of immigration, memory, and family for very young readers.

Small Beauties: The Journey of Darcy Heart O'HaraThis picture book for children recounts the immigration of the Irish into the United States to escape the great potato famine. Darcy Heart O'Hara is a fictional character who helps her family overcome the hardship they met when they first arrived in America. She is resourceful and resilient as she ties her family to their roots and to one another. Darcy provides them with treasures that she had stored in the hem of her dress. The "small beauties" are pieces of their homeland collected and revealed by her to the family.
In the author's note, Elvira Woodruff explains her inspiration for the story rendered so elegantly.
This book is a treasure!