In this somber anecdotal account, of likeliest interest to students, Lyons (Letters from a Slave Girl: The Story of Harriet Jacobs) compiles quotations from Irish citizens on the devastating effects of the potato famine that ravaged Ireland between 1845 and 1852; during those years more than one-quarter of the population either died of starvation or disease, or emigrated, primarily to the U.S. Lyons explains that many of the reminiscences here are abridged from those collected in a book published in Ireland in 1995, which itself drew from the Irish Folklore Commission's efforts in the 1940s to collect stories about the Great Hunger. Given this time frame, some of these observations are first-hand, yet a significant number offer a more remote voice (e.g., "My grandmother told me of her experience when a girl of seventeen in those awful days"). Though the speakers describe affecting, even heartbreaking scenes, many entries use language that, however authentic, young readers are not likely to find compelling: "They lived from hand to mouth. Any failure in the crops meant great privation. Generally there was no money laid by." Period drawings, paintings and a handful of photos serve as illustrations. Ages 9-12. (Feb.)
