This comprehensive list of St. Patrick’s Day children’s books offers a fun and engaging way for you and your students to celebrate this holiday. These read alouds promote thoughtful classroom discussions around cultural traditions and invite students into the magical world of folktales.
Students love listening to books about leprechauns. Some of my favorites are Fiona’s Luck, How to Catch a Leprechaun, and Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato! They make my list of must-reads every year! Learn more about these St. Patrick’s Day children’s books below!
This post highlights the following books:
8 St. Patrick’s Day Children’s Books
Here are the summaries of some of my favorite St. Patrick’s Day children’s books to share with elementary students! Some of them are books about leprechauns, while others are not.
1. Fiona’s Luck by Teresa Bateman
Long ago, in Fiona’s Luck, there was plenty of luck all around Ireland. However, when “the big folk” came, luck stuck to them and the leprechauns started to worry there wouldn’t be enough. The Leprechaun King decides to have the leprechauns collect all the luck and lock it away. This causes huge problems for the people of Ireland as their crops don’t grow and animals can’t provide milk and eggs.
Thankfully, Fiona is a clever character and comes up with a plan to get the luck back from the leprechauns. She tricks everyone into thinking she has luck so the Leprechaun King wants her to visit. They make a deal that if she can prove she has no luck, he will grant her a wish worth all of her luck. When Fiona proves she has no luck, she is able to wish for nothing, which is the worth of her luck. With her quick thinking, Fiona wishes for a hole in the chest of luck, causing the luck to spread throughout the country.
Check out these Fiona’s Luck activities!
2. Clever Tom and the Leprechaun by Linda Shute
In Clever Tom and the Leprechaun, Tom Fitzpatrick is taking a walk when he hears something in the hedge at the side of the road. When he goes to look, he sees a tiny leprechaun! Tom thinks that, if he catches and scares the leprechaun, then he’ll give Tom his gold, and then he’ll be rich by the end of the day. Having made his plan, Tom approaches the leprechaun, but it seems that the creature is aware of Tom trickery. However, Tom manages to capture the leprechaun and eventually it agrees to show him where the gold is hidden.
When the leprechaun finally leads Tom to the spot, he realizes that he has to get his spade, so he ties his red garter to the bush to mark the spot. Although he gets the leprechaun to agree not to move the garter, when Tom returns, he finds that the creature had one last trick up its sleeve!
Check out these Clever Tom and The Leprechaun activities!
3. The Gingerbread Man and The Leprechaun Loose in the School by Mike Lowery
The Gingerbread Man and The Leprechaun Loose in the School tells the story about a peculiar day the Gingerbread Man and his classmates had at school. It all started when they heard a laugh and saw the Leprechaun run down the hall. They followed his notes around the school, finding mess after mess that the Leprechaun created. First the music room, then the bathroom and library! The Gingerbread Man knew he had to come up with a plan to catch the Leprechaun before he made a mess of the classroom.
The Gingerbread Man gathered his supplies and set up the trap. When the Leprechaun entered the room he was covered with glue, flung across the room, and wrapped with toilet paper. The Gingerbread Man knew his trap worked and asked the Leprechaun to clean up the mess. Once the school was clean, the Gingerbread Man let go of the Leprechaun and knew he would be ready with a new plan next year.
Check out these The Gingerbread Man and The Leprechaun Loose in the School activities!
4. How to Catch a Leprechaun by Adam Wallace
In How to Catch a Leprechaun, it is almost St. Patrick’s day and a leprechaun is out and about at night. He visits many different homes where children have designed traps in hope of catching a leprechaun. At each house he visits, the leprechaun is able to get away! None of the traps are good enough to catch him. During his visit to some of the houses, the leprechaun takes time to play tricks on the children. He paints a toilet green and puts someone’s stinky sneakers in soapy water!
Students will enjoy hearing about this leprechaun’s night out and how he gets away from all of the children’s traps. It might even encourage them to try and make their own traps!
Check out these How to Catch a Leprechaun activities!
5. That’s What Leprechauns Do by Eve Bunting
In the story That’s What Leprechauns Do, three leprechauns, Ari, Boo, and Col must go on a journey to place a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Although they try their best to remain focused, they manage to get into all kinds of mischief along the way. They paint a cow’s hooves red, tie Old Jamie’s long johns in a knot and put a ball in Miss Maud Murphy’s hen’s nest before finally reaching the end of the rainbow, where they place the pot of gold just in time.
Check out these That’s What Leprechauns Do activities!
6. The Luckiest Leprechaun by Justine Korman
In The Luckiest Leprechaun, MacKenzie O’Shammrock lives in a fairy garden that is inside a park. He is perfectly happy being alone because he must spend his time protecting his gold from Professor Chester. One day, when MacKenzie is sleeping, dirt starts falling all over his house. He goes outside to see a dog digging in the ground. When MacKenzie gets mad at the dog, she immediately apologizes. Lucky, the dog, wants to make it up to MacKenzie by being his friend or guard dog.
At first, MacKenzie is annoyed by Lucky hanging around him. However, over time, MacKenzie starts to warm up to Lucky. One day when MacKenzie is sleeping, Professor Chester comes close to stealing his gold. Thankfully, Lucky is there to scare the professor away and MacKenzie is happy to have a guard dog. However, when MacKenzie wakes up later to find his gold gone, he starts to think Lucky tricked him. He is sad to have lost his friend and his gold. Lucky returns home and explains to MacKenzie that she spent the night protecting the gold from the professor and MacKenzie realizes how great it is to have a friend.
Check out these The Luckiest Leprechaun activities!
7. Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato by Tomie dePaola
In Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato, Jamie O’Rourke is very lazy, especially when it comes to working. His wife Eileen does all of their planting, weeding and watering. One day, Eileen hurts her back and could not do the planting. Jamie started to worry that they wouldn’t have enough food to eat over the winter. On a late night walk to church, Jamie caught a leprechaun. Instead of taking the pot of gold, the leprechaun tricked Jamie into wishing for the biggest potato ever.
Jamie returned home to plant his potato seed and soon after it grew into a giant potato. The villagers in town were amazed and offered to help Jamie dig up the potato if he explained how he tricked the leprechaun. When the potato rolls away and blocks the road, everyone must take home pieces of the potato to eat all winter. By spring, everyone is tired of potatoes and the villagers do not want Jamie to plant more seeds. They decided to make sure he always has enough food so they never have to see a potato again.
Check out these Jamie O’Rourke and The Big Potato activities!
8. The Night Before St. Patrick’s Day by Natasha Wing
‘Twas the Night Before St. Patrick’s Day tells the story of two siblings named Tim and Maureen who are excited about the holiday. The two had decorated the house and even set a trap in hopes of catching a leprechaun!
On the morning of St. Patrick’s Day, the family is celebrating with bagpipes and green eggs when they hear a clatter. Tim and Maureen race to their room only to discover it is a mess! They follow muddy footprints that lead to their trap, with a leprechaun inside. Both Tim and Maureen are exciting thinking they will make the leprechaun lead them to the gold. The leprechaun shows them a map and explains the gold is buried in their backyard! However, the leprechaun fooled them and is able to escape without giving up his gold!
This fun rhyming book is a great way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
Check out these The Night Before St. Patrick’s Day activities!
Free Reading Resources
Download these free reading resources for elementary teachers!
