I have a great love for animals and for Ireland. When you combine the two, so many stories spill out, just waiting to be told. Rural Ireland, especially in the hills, remains one of the most beautiful places on earth. Horses, sheep, cows, dogs and other precocious creatures roam the lands, unbothered by the passing of time.
I am sure his farmer experiences the same frustration our farmer, Aoife, experiences in the books...having to keep a watchful eye on a rogue sheep and his friends day and night. While relaxing on a hill after a heavy rain shower, an enormous rainbow appeared in the sky. It seemed to stretch from the green earth all the way up to the highest heaven. As a group of sheep returned to graze in a pasture, one stood out from the rest. He causally strolled up to a stone fence and tried to climb over. But it was not meant to be. The sheep had been cuffed with a soft line from one rear leg to the opposite front leg. He was known as an escape artist, more interested in wandering than in eating. I am sure that his farmer experienced the same frustration our farmer, Aoife (pronounced ‘ee-fuh’), experienced in the book…having to keep a watchful eye on a rogue sheep day and night.
The Aoife's Amazing Animals book series is truly for both adults and children. Carefully read the story and look closely at the pictures. The tale offers many life lessons about kindness and vanity, loyalty and fear, new love and hope, humor and sadness, and dreams and acceptance. We all feel many good things in our heart...cherish your feelings, don't be afraid to become who you are.
INTERESTING INFORMATION ABOUT LIBRARIES IN IRELAND
If you are visiting Ireland you can see copies of the Aoife's Amazing Animals books in one of many libraries. There is an Act in Ireland that requires Irish publishers and distributors to deposit, by law, one copy of a book or a journal in 13 specified legal deposit libraries.
A ‘book’ includes newspapers, sheet music, maps, and several other published items. The nation’s published output is collected and becomes part of the national heritage. They become a recorded part of essential research resources, and they are preserved for the use of future generations.
The following are designated legal deposit libraries:
- Trinity College Dublin
- The British Library
- The National Library of Ireland
- Dublin City University
- NUI Galway
- NUI Maynooth
- UCD
- University College Cork
- University of Limerick
- The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
- Cambridge University Library
- The National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh
- The National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth
Aoife and her animals never expected to become part of such a distinguished group!