Download Flame Over Tara ePub

Great book!

This is a read-a-loud for SonLight curriculum. It gives a great overview of life in Ireland around St Patrick's ministry. The main character is a female struggling with accepting her arranged marriage, converting from paganism to Christainity and becoming woman. My kids and I looked forward to it everyday and actually read ahead. Even though the main character is a girl, there's enough positive male roles (of course St Patrick himself) for any young boy to gain inspiration.

This is a reader or read-aloud in the Sonlight curriculum. Overall, we are not enjoying this book. This is ostensibly a historical fiction about St. Patrick and his conversion of Ireland. But it failed to capture our interest. It has frequent, lengthy, and unnecessary passages describing the scenery and surroundings. Yet, any real action is missing or glossed over. I am currently reading this aloud to my son, and the sentences are too lengthy to speak easily. The words are spoken only with difficulty; they do not easily roll off the tongue. He says it's a boring story, and I agree. One main plot thread in the book is that a teen girl is promised in marriage, but she decides to follow Patrick and dedicate her life to him and his God. There was flimsy to no evidence in the story of why she would do this. The focus is mostly on details of the scenery and unrelated dialogue between some of the other characters. So the reader is not likely to become emotionally invested with one of the main characters in the book and why she would make this important decision. Yet, a lot of the book hinges on this important decision of hers. Why continue reading it? I feel like I've wasted my time reading this. This book could have been written so much better.

Soon the Leprechaun traps will appear in our home, constructed from oatmeal containers, Legos, Lincoln logs, and an old cracker box painted green. They get a bit more sophisticated every year, but the bait is always the same: the golden Legos and anything else the boys can find that resembles gold. In the many years that we have been “trapping” Leprechauns, we have yet to capture anyone, and, to be honest, the only real proof that we have of the Leprechauns’ existence is the havoc they wreak upon our house every St. Patrick’s Day Eve (a little-known observance, to be sure). They’ve been known to turn the milk green, to kidnap stuffed animals and dress them in green clothing, and even to write “Leprechauns Rule – Boys Drool” on our windows in green finger paint. Our sons are highly motivated in this business of building Leprechaun traps, because the sneaky little guys in green always spring the traps and leave behind some of their treasure: golden wrapped candy.

Obviously, there is no spiritual significance to this crazy holiday tradition — unless one values the teaching that God invented fun and delights in creativity — but, it certainly heightens my boys’ interest in reading stories about St. Patrick, both historical and fanciful. Flame Over Tara has been read aloud several times in our home, coming to us as part of our history curriculum, but finding a home on our bookcase and in our year. Author Madeleine Polland has masterfully woven two young fictional protagonists and their families into the context of the Roman Empire’s expansion across the Channel and Patrick’s arrival in Ireland in 432 A.D. Macha, a young teen, but of marriageable age in that culture, and her eleven-year-old foster brother Benet meet Patrick on the day of his arrival and are drawn by his mystique, his talk of a foreign God, and their father’s revelation that Patrick’s arrival fulfills an ancient prophecy.

With all of Ireland’s spiritual life in the grip of the Druid priesthood, superstition and magic are all the Irish knew of spirituality. Patrick’s arrival is met with distrust and outright hostility, especially among the Druidic advisors to King Leary. Young Benet is swiftly chosen to apprentice under Patrick; therefore, Macha is seized with restlessness and a desire to learn more about Patrick’s God. An impetuous decision imperils her family, endangers Patrick, and spreads political intrigue all the way to the royal palace.

Wise as a serpent, Patrick challenges the rituals of darkness during the Druid’s high holy day, trusting his God, his knowledge of nature, and the brain that God gave him. Drawn into the crisis, Benet demonstrates faith in God and loyalty to his mentor under incredible pressure, and Macha matures into a deeper understanding of what it means to follow the true and living God. Polland’s rich narrative provides the back story to many of the blarney tales behind the legend of St. Patrick, resulting in an account that is both historically enlightening and God-exalting. Flame Over Tara is a great addition to a homeschool curriculum and a great family read-aloud for the month of March!

In this beautifully written novel we follow a young girl as she struggles with her future after Patrick arrives in Ireland with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Macha had been excited to hear the news that she was going home to her parents and was to be married, although she was but fourteen years old. But when Patrick came onto the scene telling of his God, she was intrigued and determined to follow him like her foster brother Benet. The difference was that he had permission, and there were grave consequences for many when Macha's father heard that she was gone. The druids were not too pleased with Patrick and his gospel, and they try many means to get rid of him. Patrick outwits them, more by logical thinking than by the power of God, but nevertheless, God is accepted. Macha had promised herself to follow Patrick's God, her parents wanted her to marry, and Patrick himself had told her to obey her parents. Truly, she was not opposed to marrying...

This is a great book for a rainy day and will capture the attention of young people who may be studying this time time period.

Warning: The author does not believe in miracles, and tries to explain away the miracles of St. Patrick. As a Catholic, I did not feel that this book bore much resemblance to the Catholic St. Patrick. By trying to reduce St. Patrick's miracles to mere natural phenomena, this book shows itself to be covertly anti-Catholic.