The cottage is small, and there is never too much of anything and sometimes hardly enough; but to the four children — Michael and Brigid and the twins, Liam and Francie — it is the center of a delightful world where each one in the family takes part in caring for the rest.

Mother O'Sullivan knows how to comfort or play with the children, and Father can tell grand stories when he has time. Father's sprained ankle gives time for stories, and makes it necessary for Michael and Brigid to take a thrilling trip across the mountain to sell the donkey.

The twins are masters of innocent mischief amusing to hear alone, and Paddy the Piper brings romance from over the mountain and a good time at the Bantrytown fair.

What with one thing and another, you know that the children are lucky to belong to such a family and you would like to go to Ireland and visit them.

The pictures of the whole family, of all the people and the places in the story make it so real that you feel that you have visited the O'Sullivans and made lifelong friends of them.

Hilda van Stockum, the author-artist, now lives in Canada with her husband and six children, but she has spent many years in Ireland. Her father was Dutch, her mother Irish. She was born in Rotterdam but went to Ireland every summer. Later she studied at an art school in Dublin and lived in Dublin, doing portrait painting and illustrating.

Her other book laid in Ireland is Pegeen. Andries and Gerrit and the Organ are laid in Holland. Hilda van Stockum married an American in 1932 and The Mitchells and Canadian Summer are about her own lively children. Patsy and the Pup is a gay picture book, and The Angels' Alphabet is a collection of religious verse for children from 5 to 10.

From the dust jacket