Mary Lyons biography of "The Great Hunger" in Ireland during the mid-nineteenth century is a riveting collection of first-hand accounts from the Irish people who experienced this horrific time of disease and starvation. The author chooses to let the Irish people tell their story in their own words. I thought the organization was an interesting way to tell the story, but I felt the author should have included her voice to lend explanations to younger readers to help them understand the more abstract concepts like England's institutionalized racism, tenant farming (lack of land ownership), or England's lack of empathy for Ireland's plight.
The book includes a bibliography but the true sources of information are the original accounts of which the University College in Dublin Ireland granted her access.
Some of the accounts are truly traumatic, like mass graves, mother's carrying dead infants, and the lengths people would go to get a bite of food. The author shares these stories with the reader in the hopes of bringing attention to an underdocumented blight in European history. Over one million people died during the years 1846 to 1852 yet not one known photo exists. I am the granddaughter of Irish immigrants and I appreciate the author's passion for telling this story. ( )

I really liked this book for many reasons. The big idea of this book is to inform young children about the harsh times Irish people had to face during the potato famine. Although this book is solely informational, it manages to still keep the reader engaged. For example, the author stated “Now over forty million Irish descendants live in the United States. You may be one of them.” By making this statement about Irish people in America personal to the reader, the author is is grabbing the reader’s attention. Children who are Irish will feel more connected to this book because they will realize that it is about their own personal history. This book describes in great detail how potatoes are made and how vital they were for the survival of Irish people in the 1800s. The images are eye-catching and capture the hard times Irish people faced during the famine. There is one sketch of a malnourished girl in Galway that is very powerful and emotional to look at. Since this is a non-fiction book about the grave topic of hunger, I would not recommend this book for younger elementary school students. Both the text and the illustrations depict too heavy of a message for small children. However, this book provides a great opportunity to students in 4th and 5th grade because it allows them to see history from a non-American perspective. Elementary school students usually do not get the chance to learn about Irish history, so this book pushes students to think about tough issues that people had to face in another part of the world. This book is well organized and has clearly labeled sections such as “Potatoes and the Blight”, “Searching for Food”, and “Soup Kitchens”. These categories make it easy for children to refer back to specific sections of the book without having to read it from beginning to end. There are also quotes from Irish people who lived through the famine that raise the emotional impact that this book has on the reader. I would recommend this book to a child who needs to write a non-fiction book report or research paper. This book is sad, but a very interesting read. ( )

Feed the Children First is a collection of first and second-hand accounts of the Irish Potato Famine. Mary Lyons, a former librarian, has collected a remarkable selection of stories, letters, and photographs into possibly the most succinct book ever written on the Great Hunger. Within the first few pages, the reader is given a lesson on famine by the people who lived it and their descendants.

Every page has either an invaluable insight into the causes of the famine, a photograph worth a thousand words, an illustration colored with heartbreak, or a story that could move the dead. This book is a mere 43 pages and the author has done something incredibly difficult here- she has immersed the reader completely. Feed the Children First would make a perfect introduction to a topic that changed Europe and America forever.

Included in this fantastic book is a note to the reader, an extensive collection of acknowledgments and illustration credits, and a bibliography.

This book should be welcomed (and most certainly included) in any history classroom across the country. Recommended for ages 10 & Up. ( )