Product Description
Published 30 years ago, the Mikey Joe Stories is a both a children’s book and an adult fantasy. Mikey Joe is raised in the remote hills of the Irish coastal countryside, his family ostracised through his father’s environmental championship. Puppy Dog is his only companion until he meets the Magic Donkey, who reappears through the book.
Losing his parents and his own leg in a traffic accident, he ends up orphaned in hospital where his strange journey is populated by characters like The-Girl-Who-Couldn’t-Talk, The-Boy-Who-Couldn’t-See and the Girl-Who-Couldn't-Remember (including a Person-All-In-Bandages) and a Day Nurse who sings Happy Birthday every day because it’s always someone’s birthday.
Just as his journey begins again, an evil Train Conductor overcomes the honest thief Light-Fingered-Eddie leading to Mikey Joe’s the unjust jailing. Identification number tattooed on his wrist, he experiences terrible scenes that reflect the horror of man’s inhumanity to children.
Sheltered by a kindly Judge – and his ever-generous cook and housekeeper - before his unjust sentencing, Mikey Joe and his new best friend Yin-Yan see the streets of The City decay around them against a background of flaring violence. The Judge tells Mikey Joe. “The President can not help us. He is a good man, but he is surrounded by bad men who care only for wealth and power. There are evil times, and we must endure them in silence…’
Mikey Joe’s roller-coaster emotional journey transcends time and history, echoing the message that being ‘strong and brave and honest’ can free us from eternal suffering. For children, the book is a timeless tale of loyalty and love. For adults, The Mikey Joe Stories are an allegorical world of universal significance.
Losing his parents and his own leg in a traffic accident, he ends up orphaned in hospital where his strange journey is populated by characters like The-Girl-Who-Couldn’t-Talk, The-Boy-Who-Couldn’t-See and the Girl-Who-Couldn't-Remember (including a Person-All-In-Bandages) and a Day Nurse who sings Happy Birthday every day because it’s always someone’s birthday.
Just as his journey begins again, an evil Train Conductor overcomes the honest thief Light-Fingered-Eddie leading to Mikey Joe’s the unjust jailing. Identification number tattooed on his wrist, he experiences terrible scenes that reflect the horror of man’s inhumanity to children.
Sheltered by a kindly Judge – and his ever-generous cook and housekeeper - before his unjust sentencing, Mikey Joe and his new best friend Yin-Yan see the streets of The City decay around them against a background of flaring violence. The Judge tells Mikey Joe. “The President can not help us. He is a good man, but he is surrounded by bad men who care only for wealth and power. There are evil times, and we must endure them in silence…’
Mikey Joe’s roller-coaster emotional journey transcends time and history, echoing the message that being ‘strong and brave and honest’ can free us from eternal suffering. For children, the book is a timeless tale of loyalty and love. For adults, The Mikey Joe Stories are an allegorical world of universal significance.
