I found this book while searching online for good books on mythology that I could read to my 7-year-old twins at bedtime. Books about Greek and Roman mythology abounded, but titles from other cultures were more scarce. I was happy to find this, since my own interests run more towards the Celtic side of things.

It was perfect for my purposes. The stories in Celtic Mythology for Kids: Tales of Selkies, Giants & the Sea, by Christopher S. Pinard, are short, mostly around 4 pages each, so they're good fodder for bedtime when the kids want a story but their attention spans are waning. The stories come from varied locations in the Celtic world -- Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Brittany -- and the story topics are diverse.

Some of the stories were unfamiliar to me, while I was also pleased to see some variations on tales I already knew -- about the likes of Finn Mac Cumhaill, King Cormac and Lugh of the Tuatha de Danaan. One of the stories, titled "Whippety Stourie," is a Scottish twist on the more familiar "Rumplestiltskin."

I could wish the book were better illustrated. Pictures are scarce -- just one per story, and it's at the beginning, usually with only a line or two of text before you turn the page -- and the simplistic style of Javier Olivares did not hold my children's attention for more than a second or two.

But the stories are good, well told for children. Pinard included questions at the end of each tale -- not to quiz the children on what they heard, but to get them thinking about the concepts introduced. ("Should we stick to our word even when we are afraid?" "Can being kind change the course of our fate?" "Can someone make everything right once they have betrayed another person?") Some of the questions were a bit of a stretch, but answering the questions only added a few minutes to storytime, and I was happy to see the kids thinking about the stories they heard.

I'm going to stick this book on the shelf and let the kids read it for themselves in a year or two. I wonder if any of their answers will have changed.