The Leaper Seumas Macdonald is an outsider, not only because helives on an isolated primitive croft, but also because, being the only child in the school to speak Gaelic(apart from his disturbed sister), he is the favourite ofMacCallum the headmaster, which leads to the boybeing bullied in the playground. MacCallum comes in hisboat for ceilidhs with the Macdonald family, to preservethe evocative Gaelic names of birds and flowers, and...