Children's Books discussion

This month participants can read about Leprechauns, not only fiction stories but also leprechauns in folklore.

This picture book by a local Hamilton, Ontario, Canada author and illustrator about a leprechaun caught in a computer in Newfoundland is lovely.

The dot com Leprechaun

An original fairy tale set in Newfoundland, The dot com Leprechaun (both written and illustrated by local Waterdown, Ontario author and artist Caroline Stellings) tells the story of Lucy, a young Newfoundland girl who is about to face the loss of her beloved ocean-side family home (times are tough on the Bonavista Peninsula, and Lucy's parents are simply unable to continue to make the required payments on their home). While distracting herself with her computer, Lucy encounters a leprechaun (a leprechaun who requires Lucy's help as he has been magically transported into her computer by the volatile and moody witch Elfrieda). Before moonrise, Lucy must go down to the eerie root cellar of her house, retrieve the silver satin shoes the leprechaun has made for Elfrieda, and then convince the witch that these shoes fit, that the leprechaun did not make shoes too small for Elfrieda's big feet. Otherwise, the witch will cast a spell, forever turning the leprechaun Caboto (Caboto, not Rumpelstiltskin, as stated by the leprechaun himself) into a cyber-leprechaun. Will Lucy be brave enough to venture into the creepy, uncanny root cellar? Will she have enough courage to help Caboto, and perhaps, by helping him, also help herself and her family?

With an engaging text and evocative, poignant accompanying illustrations, Caroline Stellings deftly combines traditional folklore, historical detail and modern computer-lingo (all framed by the specter of poverty, of a family about to lose their home, their ocean-side sanctuary). Both emotionally moving and gently witty, both historically informative and fantastical, The dot com Leprechaun weaves a magical, sweetly enjoyable tapestry of text and image. Narrative and illustrations not only show the fantasy, the pathos, the humour of the story-line, they are also evocative of the sights, sounds, the very presence of Newfoundland, no mean feat, considering that the author has actually never been to Newfoundland.

Recommended for children interested in magical creatures, especially leprechauns and other "Little People" and The dot com Leprechaun would also be a good first introduction to Newfoundland history (particularly John Cabot, whose background and achievements are presented in an excellent and informative authors's note, along with details about the historical significance of root cellars). Furthermore, I believe that The dot com Leprechaun could also be a wonderful book to gently, but firmly introduce younger children to some of the current economic woes facing many Newfoundlanders (the threat of losing their homes, the fact that with the decline of the cod fisheries, many Newfoundlanders have been forced to leave the island and find work elsewhere, such as Ontario and Alberta).

Read this last year, but was disappointed and also not interested in the sequels either.

Lucky O'Leprechaun

I have to admit that I am not really at all a fan of Jana Dillon's Lucky O'Leprachaun, that I am thus definitely glad that Lucky O'Leprechaun was a free Open Library download and not a book I had chosen to purchase for my own bookshelves and that I will of course now also not bother with the two sequels, with Lucky O'Leprechaun Comes to America and with Lucky O'Leprechaun in School.

For one, there is quite a lot of often rather complicated narrative featured in Lucky O'Leprachaun, and enough so (in my humble opinion) to potentially be rather distracting for younger children. And indeed, the rather annoying and repeated textual use of supposed Irish vernacular by author and illustrator Jana Dillon feels not only linguistically artificial in Lucky O'Leprachaun but is for me as a language teacher (and a bit of a linguist) also a potential learning and teaching issue in a picture book geared towards young children (either as readers or as listeners) since this can give the erroneous idea that in Ireland, a not all that grammatically correct English is generally being spoken and might also in a worst case scenario have young readers or listeners mimic and repeat the textually presented grammar and syntax errors.

For two, while catching the family leprechaun in the garden might textually seem rather fun, personally, I have found that entire scenario as it is presented by Jana Dillon a bit uncomfortable, as well as the obvious fact and truth of the matter that in Lucky O'Leprachaun the aunts are totally and easily being manipulated and played by their niece and nephew and so much so that basically, the mischievous wanting to capture and trap a leprechaun children feel like they are the main movers and shakers, that they are in control and not at all the adults (maybe humorous to a point, but personally I found this all rather off-putting and also have ended up not really liking and appreciating those two whining and demanding kiddies and indeed rather wishing that Lucky O'Leprachaun would not end with the leprechaun being trapped and then also making friends with those two annoying little hellions).

And for three, although Jana Dillon's artwork is definitely expressive and majorly colourful, sorry, but her illustrations for Lucky O'Leprachaun are also not really to my own personal aesthetic tastes, with me finding in particular Dillon's human figure rather grotesque and caricature like, and actually only considering the Leprechaun as being depicted in a visually non annoying and unappealing manner, so that yes, with regard to the combination of Jana Dillon's text and her accompanying artwork, for me, Lucky O'Leprachaun is definitely rather a disappointment and as such only a two star book.

Looked interesting but was anything but.

Green

Well, for me to point out that Laura Peyton Roberts’ 2009 novel Green has been a bit of a disappointment with regard to my personal reading pleasure is unfortunately not only pretty well the truth but also rather an understatement, since from the Goodreads synopsis for Green (which in my opinion really does look quite thematically promising and tempting), I was most definitely hoping (and even expecting) for Peyton Roberts to have penned an original leprechaun infused tale where she manages to have reality and fantasy coexist successfully and believably, with fantasy affecting reality and vice versa, where both of these are forever linked and hooked together and that this linkage is also something both positive and indeed even necessary. But albeit that with Green Laura Peyton Roberts I think assumes that the fantastic and the realistic parts of her text feed off of one another and are thus also inseparably fused together, sorry, but in my humble opinion and after having just finished reading Green, the above does not ever truly occur and is at best only rather vaguely alluded to but not ever expanded upon in any manner even remotely sufficiently.

Because while main protagonist Lily Green’s backstory, while the beginning of Green (even if rather generic in scope and thus certainly also not all that thematically original) is generally delightfully readable and also feels emotionally relatable (especially Lily’s issues with her mother forcing her to take gymnastic lessons and how hard it is for Lily to make friends), honestly, but as soon as Lillibet, as soon as Lily is transported away by those leprechauns, well, you basically seem to get a completely separate and different novel happening. And even though Lily Green is a lepling on her father’s side (which means partially a leprechaun) and is thus supposed to be tied to both the realm of fantasy and also to the realm of reality, indeed, whilst I was reading Green I just could not truly notice this, I was always feeling like Lilly Green’s story in fantasyland was completely and absolutely different and removed from her real-life existence, and that Green therefore has felt like two very different tales, and a book where Laura Peyton Robert’s narrative is basically rather annoyingly thematically divided and does not ever manage to become sufficiently linked, that Lily Green and her grandmother are completely different during the fantastical parts of Green and that this caesura really does make me not consider Laura Peyton Roberts’s text as all that enjoyable.

In fiction I can only point to The devil's piper by Susan Price and in non-fiction to The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by W.Y. Evans-Wentz.

I remember little about The Devil's Piper - I read it a long time ago - other than it is a story about some children who are confronted by a not too friendly leprechaun. However, The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries is a delight to read, although it must be said that it depends on one's own gullibility in terms of accepting folk tales and legends. Taken with some scepticism it is fascinating. I am sure there are several sources for online downloads - I used Project Gutenberg.

From the shelves of my local library, I will be reading:

The Leprechaun in the Basement
Leprechaun Gold
The Leprechaun Under the Bed
Leprechaun Tales

I've read several in the past but the only one I recall particularly liking is Fiona's Luck by Teresa Bateman. I do recommend that one.

A favorite of mine is Leprechauns Never Lie by Lorna Balian. Are we allowed rereads?

Ms. B wrote: "A favorite of mine is Leprechauns Never Lie by Lorna Balian. Are we allowed rereads?"

Of course! Any Leprechaun book(s) you are familiar with or have read in the past can be shared in this topic.

Ms. B wrote: "A favorite of mine is Leprechauns Never Lie by Lorna Balian. Are we allowed rereads?"

Based on the title alone I'll have to look for this!
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Found it on openlibrary. Very cute; thank you.

Ms. B wrote: "A favorite of mine is Leprechauns Never Lie by Lorna Balian. Are we allowed rereads?"

We enjoyed this one, too.

A few other Leprechaun-focused picture books we've enjoyed:

Jack and the Leprechaun
The Story of the Leprechaun
That's What Leprechauns Do

Leprechaun Luck & Find


This search and find book is for children too young for the Where's Waldo books, and maybe even the I Spy series. Each double page spread contains a simple poem and several items to search for, mostly to do with St. Patrick's day and leprechauns. Most of the "hidden" items are easy enough for a pre-school child to find. The number of leprechauns on each spread begins with 1, and adds 1 more on each spread, up until 13. The illustrations are appealing cartoons, with an emphasis on different shades of green.

The Gingerbread Man and the Leprechaun Loose at School


Instead of a crowd trying to catch the Gingerbread Man, the Gingerbread Man is out to catch the mischievous leprechaun, who is creating havoc all around the school. The GM finally sets a trap for him in a classroom and forces him to put all the mess to right. The text is large and easy to read and the illustrations are also large enough to share with a group.

Interesting to have the book count to 13. I don't think I've ever seen that as a top number.

Pete the Cat: The Great Leprechaun Chase


Pete the Cat sets up a leprechaun catching business (to catch luck) and attempts to help his friends Squirrel, Gus, and Callie by catching a leprechaun to give them luck, but without success. The artist used pen, ink, watercolor, and acrylic paint in his rather garish cartoon illustrations.

Leprechaun vs. Easter Bunny


If you like books where one holiday symbol fights with another, then this is the book for you. A leprechaun and an Easter bunny try to get rid of each other in order to prepare for his own holiday. However, they come together when an interfering Cupid shows up. Very cute digital cartoon illustrations make up for the story of not-getting-along. Also, the cover has embedded glitter, so it is very shiny.

Leprechauns and Irish Folklore

I enjoyed this Magic Tree House companion book, and even though it is written for elementary school students, I still learned some things from it. The book begins with some general information about Irish folklore. Then, in addition to leprechauns, the book briefly discusses clurichauns, fear deargs, banshees, pookas, dullahans, merrows, grogochs, ballybogs, and trooping fairies. The book is illustrated with appealing black-and-white pictures and a number of black-and-white photographs. It also includes an index and a bibliography of books, videos, and websites.
Since this book was published in 2010, I had trouble accessing a couple of the websites listed.

Three Ways to Trap a Leprechaun


Claire convinces her brother Sam that leprechauns exist with her ingenious traps that entrap...nothing. Very appealing illustrations adeptly depict a determined girl and a wily leprechaun.