Breda's Island

By: Jessie Ann Foley

Narrated by: Megan Trout

In the vein of When You Trap a Tiger and Shouting at the Rain, this is the story of the journey one girl undertakes to find herself.

After Breda Moriarity gets caught stealing one too many times, Breda's mom sends her to Ireland, a place she has never been, to live with the grandfather she has never met.

While Breda doesn’t want to be in this strange land, she finally gets to meet Granda, her mom’s father. He’s a grumpy farmer who is also a seanchaí, a traditional Gaelic storyteller. But the most important story is the one nobody will talk about: what happened to her absent father. If nothing else this summer, Breda is determined to figure out the truth about her family’s history—and herself.

This powerfully poignant middle grade novel, the first from award-winning author Jessie Ann Foley, asks questions about estranged relationships, immigration, and family secrets.

The voice-over was brilliant!

The artist who read/acted this novel is incredibly talented. When listening, I actually felt like I was there! How anyone can bring so many characters to life is beyond me. Each character had a distinct voice and accent, Amazing!
The story was good too..

Beautiful story

I absolutely loved it! Both kids and adults will really enjoy this story! Jessie Ann Foley is an amazing author.

Beautiful story, botched accents

Absolutely loved this story, as a person who went home to Ireland from the US as about the same time as Breda, trying to forge a relationship with a grandparent who was a stranger to me. I cried! Beautifully told. The infusion of stories by the seanachie flowed well with the story, which is difficult to do.

It’s a terrible shame that the publisher did not hire Irish narrators who would read the Irish accents, though. They are so difficult to get right and so grating when they are off. This was definitely a decent attempt but still jarringly bad at times, like frequent discordant notes in a musical performance with only one person on stage.

I highly recommend d the story for a family audiobook read on a long drive.