The Stolen Child

By Keith Donahue

This book is based on the poem "The Stolen Child" by W.B. Yeats, and on the changeling myth from medieval Europe. "Faeries" are not flying cute "fairies" but changelings who play pranks on the village (they are the reason why you lose one sock in every laundry load, or why things go missing).
A seven-year-old boy runs away from home because he is unhappy with his family life.While he is gone, the changelings snatch him and replace him with one of their own, who assumes his appearance and lives his life. The boy is then changed into a faerie who will live as a perpetual child in the wilderness. The worlds of human and changeling are incompatible and should not mix.
The novel explores some questions such as: Which is better, growing up and experiencing difficulties or remaining an unchanging child forever? How much do parents really know about the mind of their own child they care for? Could there be something hidden? Is she really their child? Did the changelings do violence in taking a child away from his life or did they give him second chance?