Thomas, Shelley Moore. The Seven Tales of Trinket.

Thomas, Shelley Moore.  The Seven Tales of Trinket.  Farrar Strauss see Macmillan Children's Publishing Group.                  369p      $16.99   978-0-374-36745-9         2012    elem/ms                E-BN                         Fairy tale                                

Eleven-year-old Trinket sets out to find her missing father after the death of her mother.  Following a tattered map that once belonged to her storyteller father, she sets out with Thomas, the neighboring pig boy.  Through her adventures, Trinket gathers stories to eventually follow her father’s profession.
She meets a fortunetelling gypsy girl, rescues a baby from selkies and returns it to its mother, faces a banshee to receive a message from her mother, outsmarts the Faerie Queen, travels beyond the grave on Hallowe’en, and saves a loyal hound from death.  But her seventh tale answers her question about her father and why he did not return to the family.
 

The stories rely heavily upon Celtic folklore, as the author explains in the author’s note.  These tales gathered by Trinket provide a bridge between fiction and story-collection titles.  They also provide an alternative to typical fairy tales.

Middle grade and middle-school students will enjoy this title (grades 4-8).  

Storytelling                                                                                                                                                                --Joan Theal