On the Luck of an Irish Sailor

Book excerpt: A young Irish sailor cast adrift in the sea. A mermaid princess and Irish luck save him from drowning. This adventurous tale owes its inspiration to stories Mike Mirabella heard as a little boy. His sizeable Italian clan swapped stories during family dinners at the kitchen table. "My grandpa and uncles would tell tales of fishing the waters off the coast of California and up through the inland passages of Alaska. I recall Grandpa Angelo telling of the scary time when he was a cabin boy of 12 and was captured by pirates while working on the tall ships. And then there was the never-ending argument between my Grandpa and Uncle Cam: what was the strange creature they caught off the coast of Alaska? A mermaid or a merman? "I was (and still am), that wee lad in our story, sitting wide-eyed, half-believing, yet never tiring of hearing those wonder-filled stories told by those salty, old jacks. "Using the rhyming style of a pirate in an Irish pub, our sailor spins his yarn about seeing the slap of a mermaid's tail during a mighty storm. "On the Luck of an Irish Sailor" is a beautiful tale of adventure on the high seas. In a story that's been passed down for generations, author Mike Mirabella takes us on a magical experience deep beneath the ocean. Could it happen? Did it happen? Folklore - that's the feeling sparked by the illustrations by illustrator Amy O'Hanlon. She uses hues of blues, grays, and browns to depict the fierce storm accurately. On other pages, O'Hanlon uses beige and brown tones to create the illusion of an older picture book-like a classic story that's been around for years.Enjoy the bonus song sheets and sing along with this mostly true story of adventure, redemption, and "The Luck of an Irish Sailor."