“Lost in Ireland” is a book written by Cindy Callaghan. It
tells the story of Meghan McGlinchey, a superstitious teenager from Delaware
who goes to Ireland for spring break after a series of misfortunes over the
course of a day. Her goal on the trip was to find the sender of the chain letter
after taking a shortcut in passing on the email. The book is geared towards
younger readers.
The audiobook version was read by Brenda Scott Wlazlo. Wlazlo added a lot of drama to the story and made it interesting. She used different voices for the characters, which brought them to life.
The writing of the book was descriptive. Readers will be
able to be transported into the story and be part of the narrative. This makes
the book entertaining and immersive, which is difficult to do. All books should be
written in this way as it is engaging and entertaining.
Readers will be able to read to be able to relate to the
characters of the book. Meghan is someone who has worked hard to make sure she
is able to be successful in her academics. She does her best to make sure her
ducks are in a row, and her sisters have their own personalities. Her best
friend, Clarissa, is used to getting demerits, while Meghan avoids them.
There were several things in terms of Irish culture that
were a bit inaccurate in the book. Meghan should have known that Ireland tends
to be rainy, so she would have known not to straighten her hair. Also, in
Ireland, they drive on the left side of the road, so they do not drive on the “wrong”
side of the road. This should have been mentioned in the book.
It is also a bit cringey that Meghan used her Ireland trip
to have her luck shift. The Irish being lucky is an American invention,
stemming from the Irish American miners who struck gold in California. The
Irish, including Irish Americans, have had a difficult history full of discrimination
and difficulty.
Slip jigs do not use hard shoes. This means that the dance
the girls were doing when Meghan heard the clicking of the Irish dance hard
shoes was not a slip jig. However, Meghan described the dance as a slip jig. Meghan
is an Irish dancer, so she should have known, and this was the author’s
mistake.
“Lost” is not an accurate description of the plot in the
book. Meghan was not lost, but she just had to go on a quest to find those who sent
the chain letters. There were some “surprises” that I predicted before they
were revealed. For example, I knew that the female rugby player was Anna before
it was revealed.
Overall, this book was a great adventure, even though there were some things that were misspoken about in terms of the Irish culture. The message of the book is incredibly wholesome, and the story of finding family members is really cool.
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