Bells are used to gather, warn, and mark significant moments in life. To celebrate their significance, CBC radio journalist Ann Spencer has gathered a trove of lore and legend, fact and fancy. But while Spencer has uncovered interesting stories and details, they’re told in a flat and uninteresting way. This is partly attributable to the book’s subject. Bells, while necessary and beautiful, are not nearly as compelling as the sea, the focus of Spencer’s last collection. But the flatness is also a result of the book’s writing, organization, and design.

Spencer’s prose is competent, but rarely achieves any lift. It does little other than convey information. That’s problematic when the information is a folktale or legend, the very soul of which lies in the cadence of the language relating it.

The book is divided into thematic sections dealing with the elements, driving away evil, miracles and wonders, making bells, how bells mark life, and belfries. Within each are grouped rhymes, sayings, legends, stories, and historical accounts. The distinction between genres, indicated in the table of contents, isn’t made clear inside the sections themselves. There’s no index, and the italicized introductions to some stories are confusing. Often they seem unnecessary, or too much a part of the story to be set apart, as if they are italicized merely to add variety to the look of the page. Such ornamentation might have been better left to Lindsay Grater’s black-and-white illustrations. This is a solid, moderately interesting book but one that could have been stronger and much more engaging.