Painting by Phil Terry

Rónán and the Mermaid - June, 2020 - Candlewick Press USA - Walker Books UK 
One day long ago, a monk from the Abbey of Bangor found a young boy washed up on the shore. He was surrounded by a circle of seals.

​It was a mystery where the boy had come from. At first, he could barely speak. But when he recovered he said he'd been brought ashore by a lady with long golden hair who sang him to safety. The monks knew the legend of the mermaid Liban who had been wandering the coast for three hundred years. Was it the mermaid who had saved him?

Taking her inspiration from a story told in medieval chronicles of Irish history about a marvelous happening in the year 558, Marianne McShane weaves a tale of kindness, music, and longing that makes you believe that if you listen hard enough, you, too, can hear the mermaid’s song.

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"There was a girl in Ireland. Eily was her name. She lived with her father the fog catcher in a little cottage three fields from the sea.”

​The Fog Catcher’s Daughter - Spring, 2022 - Candlewick Press
Once a year at Midsummer, the Fog Catcher rows out to the isle of Lisnashee to collect enchanted drops of fairy mist. Eily knows it will soon be her time to accompany him and follow in the family tradition.  But she fears the fairy spells and the wild and windy seas. When her father is stranded on the fairy isle without his charm for protection, she must face her fears. Will she find the courage to leave the safe harbour of the cove and row out over the wild waves and into the treacherous Fairy Wind to save him?
 
Inspired by the seashore and islands of her native County Down, Marianne McShane spins a tale filled with magic and told in the lilting voice of a master storyteller.