Small Beauties
Authors: Elvira Woodruff
THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF
Text copyright © 2006 by Elvira Woodruff
Illustrations copyright © 2006 by Adam Rex
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House LLC, New York, a Penguin Random House Company.
KNOPF, BORZOI BOOKS
, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Woodruff, Elvira.
Small beauties : the journey of Darcy Heart O’Hara / by Elvira Woodruff ; pictures by Adam Rex. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
SUMMARY
: Darcy Heart O’Hara, a young Irish girl who neglects her chores to observe the beauties of nature and everyday life, shares “family memories” with her homesick parents and siblings after the O’Haras are forced to immigrate to America in the 1840s.
ISBN: 0-375-82686-6 (trade) — ISBN: 0-375-92686-0 (lib. bdg.)
ISBN-13: 978-0-375-82686-3 (trade) — ISBN-13: 978-0-375-92686-0 (lib. bdg.)
1. Ireland—History—Famine, 1845–1852—Juvenile fiction. [1. Ireland—History—Famine, 1845–1852—Fiction. 2. Emigration and immigration—Fiction. 3. Family life—Ireland—Fiction.] I. Rex, Adam, ill. II. Title.
PZ7.W8606Sm 2006
[E]—dc22
2005016038
eBook ISBN: 978-0-3075-4670-8
The illustrations in this book were created using charcoal and graphite pencils and oils on paper.
v3.1
F
OR MY MOTHER
,
F
RANNY
P
IROZZI, WHO ALWAYS NOTICED THE WILDFLOWERS GROWING ALONG THE ROAD
.
A
ND FOR THREE IRISH BEAUTIES
I
KNOW
:
P
AT
M.
B
RISSON, WHO WAS BORN WITH POETRY IN HER SOUL
,
C
AROLINE
R
YON, WHO SHOWS HER HEART UPON HER PAGE
, &
HER GRANDMOTHER
,
J
OAN
D
ONEGAN, WHOSE POETRY IS IN HER SMILE
.
—E.W.
F
OR
E
MMA
L
EEVER AND HER FAMILY
—
THANKS
.
—A.R.
On the night Darcy O’Hara was born, her father danced a jig in the firelight of their small cottage. It was what fathers did long ago, in Ireland, in the cottages of Derry Lane, in the townland of Pobble O’Keefe.
“The babe has a gift, ’tis plain to see,” Granny O’Hara whispered, her blue eyes twinkling. Granny herself had “second sight,” which let her peek into the future.
The six O’Hara boys gathered round their new sister.
“One day this child shall hold the very heart of our family in the palm of her hand,” Granny predicted.
So they named the infant Darcy Heart O’Hara.
Now children were as plentiful in Pobble O’Keefe as the chickens that roosted in the thatched roofs up and down Derry Lane. But Darcy was different. She was a noticer. She stopped to notice small beauties wherever she went.
“Darcy Heart O’Hara, how many times must you be told to milk the cow?” Granny would call from the half door. “Whatever are you doing while our Kathleen is waitin’ so patient?”
