I really enjoyed this book. It really took me back to the Blasket Islands. I don't believe this really took place there, but the descriptions really reminded me of those Irish islands. I remembered the people of Blasket being moved away to the mainland near Dingle as the characters were in this tale. Lovely illustrations. A touching story. ( )

I have loved this story since I first saw the movie years ago and have long intended to read the book but something always held me back. I wish now I had not waited so long. It is a tale filled with the magic and folklore of Ireland it begins with a young woman, a selkie, who gives up her seal form to marry and live among the island folk. This story however is really that of young Fiona, just returned from the mainland to live with her grandparents. She has missed her island home, but more than that she has longed to find her younger brother Jamie who was swept out to sea on the day they evacuated Ron Mor.

This a fairytale written for children, written down to pass the old stories on to a new generation. I've always had a soft spot for Irish folklore and this story is a perfect example of what I love about it. Magical and filting with the lilting beauty of the Irish, Rosalie Fry, does a fine job of bringing this story to life. For one who has grown up loving fairytles, she has made this story believable, one that I can truthfully see playing out amongst the prior generations who inhabited the emerald isles and the storm swept islands heading out into the Atlantic. ( )

When young Fiona McConville is sent to stay with her grandparents in the Western Isles of Scotland, she and her cousin Rory become involved in a plan to return the family to their abandoned ancestral home, the Ron Mor Island. Discovering the secret of the seals of Ron Mor Skerry, Fiona helps to resolve a family tragedy involving her long-lost baby brother, Jamie, in the process.

Readers may be more familiar with the adaptation of this short novel, and the film made from it: The Secret of Roan Inish, in which the setting is changed from Scotland to Ireland. But although the movie is well done, I think that this original version is the preferable one. Secret of the Ron Mor Skerry (originally published in the UK as Child of the Western Isles) is imbued with a powerful sense of place, and of the connections between people and the natural world around them. Those who have done some reading about the gradual abandonment of many of the western islands, off both Scotland and Ireland, will recognize many of the themes here. The writing is positively luminous, and Fry's delicate line drawings are a perfect complement to the story.

As a side note, readers interested in learning more about selkies should pick up a copy of Duncan Williamson's Tales of the Seal People: Scottish Folk Tales. ( )