The Best Leprechaun Kids Books for St. Patrick’s Day
These are our favorite leprechaun books for kids! Plus, which ones we recommend getting from the library instead–or skipping altogether.
We love to get children’s books from the library around each holiday. And we love finding our favorites to add to our permanent book collection.
I may or may not have requested every single leprechaun book I could find at my local library and put them all on hold. My local librarian probably thought I was crazy checking out 20 leprechaun books at once…but now I can tell you which ones are worth reading and which ones you should add to your own collection!
I also purchased some of the most popular St. Patrick’s Day books from Amazon and I’ll tell you which ones are actually worth the hype. At the end, I also review leprechaun board books and which ones you might like for your babies/toddlers.
These St. Patrick’s Day books are full of mischievous leprechauns, four-leaf clovers, Irish folklore, and pots of gold at the end of the rainbow. You’re bound to find at least a few fun books to read with your kids this St. Patrick’s Day!
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Our favorite leprechaun children’s books
The children’s books in this first list are our most favorite. These are the ones we would get from the library over and over again or will be added to our collection (if we haven’t already added them). I’ve tried to put them in order of most-worth-buying to ones you might want to get from the library instead (which is the next category).
How to Catch a Leprechaun
By: Adam Wallace
This book has adorable & vibrant illustrations and the catchy rhymes make it a great read-aloud book (we’re usually fans of all the “How to Catch” books). It follows an elusive leprechaun through various traps created by children but he’s always one step ahead. This book may inspire your own child to create the perfect trap to be the one child, one day, who can actually catch the leprechaun.
Three Ways to Trap a Leprechaun
By: Tara Lazar
This book is about a little girl, a leprechaun-believer, who tries to convince her brother that leprechauns are real by building three different leprechaun traps. Finn the leprechaun easily escapes the first two traps but almost gets caught in the third. At the end of the book, there are a couple pages of instructions and inspiration for building your own leprechaun trap.
How to Trap a Leprechaun
By: Sue Fliess
This is another fun book that will inspire children to create their own leprechaun traps. I love the illustration style and the rhymes are well written. I could see us reading this book multiple times around each St. Patrick’s Day.
The Night Before St. Patrick’s Day
By: Natasha Wing
This book is patterned after the poem The Night Before Christmas. It’s a fun story about two kids who try to trap a leprechaun the night before St. Patrick’s Day, but alas, they never find his pot of gold. The illustrations are cute and the story flows well. This is worth the read and maybe even worth adding to your collection.
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Clover!
By: Lucille Colandro
If you grew up reading There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, you will probably enjoy this book. It follows the same rhythmic pattern where you keep adding onto the original text. In this story, the old lady swallows a series of items–each more amusing than the last–until a leprechaun joins in the fun at the end. My son said this book was kind of weird, but he liked it and wanted to keep it (haha).
Lucky the Leprechaun on the Loose
By: Maria Cedolini Thompson
Lucky the Leprechaun on the Loose is a fun read that you might end up liking well enough to add to your St. Patrick’s Day collection. We enjoyed the playful rhymes and adorable illustrations. I think this would also be a fantastic book to read at the beginning of March if you plan on doing a leprechaun-on-the-shelf type of thing where a leprechaun (i.e. parent) plays mischievous tricks on your kids and house up until St. Patrick’s Day (like turning your toilet water green).
Pout-Pout Fish Lucky Leprechaun
By: Deborah Diesen
If you’re a fan of Pout-Pout Fish, you’ll like this cute St. Patrick’s Day story. It follows Mr. Fish on his journey to find golden treasure to put in his pot. It’s an easy read, with colorful illustrations that kids are sure to enjoy, especially around St. Patrick’s Day.
Leprechaun books to get from the library
Leprechaun vs. Easter Bunny
By: Toddy Tarpley
This book is essentially about a turf war between a leprechaun and an Easter bunny (and also baby Cupid). It has cute illustrations, is fast-paced, and has well-written rhymes that make it a good read-aloud. We enjoyed this book, but you might want to avoid it if the “fighting” themes in it could trigger your kids.
Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato
By: Tomie DePaola
You might have heard of this classic St. Patrick’s Day book before (it’s almost as old as I am). My only qualm with this book is that it essentially promotes laziness (Jamie O’Rourke is the laziest man in Ireland but still finds good fortune when a leprechaun grants his wish for the biggest potato in the world). Still, it’s a cute story and the drawings are fun for kids.
The Leprechaun’s Gold
By: Pamela Duncan Edwards
In this story, merry-hearted Old Pat and ill-spirited Young Tom travel to the Royal Palace to compete in the Finest Harpist contest. Old Pat is rewarded for his good deeds by leprechauns while his spiteful traveling companion learns a harder lesson. I enjoyed the colorful artwork and appreciate the more-positive themes for kids in this book.
That’s What Leprechauns Do
By: Eve Bunting
This book is kind of silly but might be worth getting from the library. The story is about three leprechauns who have to dig up their pot of gold before the rainbow comes out and the mischief they get into along the way.
Pete the Cat The Great Leprechaun Chase
By: James Dean
Pete the cat decides to open a leprechaun catching business and tries to help his friends catch a leprechaun for good luck. The moral of the story ends up being that having friends already makes you lucky and you can make your own luck. We didn’t love this book–it gets kind of long and my son grew bored halfway through. This book comes with a poster, stickers, and St. Patrick’s Day exchange cards if that entices you, but I’d still personally skip this book or just check it out from the library first.
Jack and the Leprechaun
By: Ivan Robertson
Jack Mouse goes to Ireland for St. Patrick’s Day with his family. This book follows some of his adventures involving a leprechaun and also mentions a lot of traditional St. Patrick’s Day things. Some of the Irish and gaelic phrases may be hard to read (I’m the parent who would skip over those, haha). You might like this book if you want to introduce more of the St. Patrick’s Day history in a child-friendly way, but it’s not a book I’d personally read more than once.
Tim O’Toole and the Wee Folk
By: Gerald McDermott
This Irish tale is about a poor man named Tim O’Toole who goes on a journey to find work but happens upon a group of leprechauns who give him a goose who lays golden eggs and a magic tablecloth that produces endless food. This is definitely a dated book with themes I don’t love. And, er…you might want to skip over the part where the leprechauns beat the neighbors and townsfolk with blackthorn clubs (whatever those are).
Shannon and the World’s Tallest Leprechaun
By: Sean Callahan
This book about a girl who gets three leprechaun wishes from a very tall leprechaun is a fun book for older kids. The story is longer with more advanced words, so younger kids might be bored, but I felt it was very well written and had some decent themes. Since stepdancing is a main subject of the book, I feel like girls may like this book more than boys.
The Secret Life of Leprechauns
By: Luna James
This is a fun little book for learning about leprechauns. The text is short, making this a good read-aloud book. The illustrations are okay (they feel more clipart-style), but I think this is a fun book to get from your local library if they have it.
Leprechaun books to pass on
Ten Lucky Leprechauns
By: Kathryn Heling & Deborah Hembrook
If you’re looking for a St. Patrick’s Day counting book, this book is kind of fun, but I wouldn’t say it’s amazing. If your child decides they want you to read this over and over (which sometimes happens with the most random books), I can guarantee you’re going to get very sick of the repetitive rhymes. It might be worth checking out from the library if your child is young and learning to count, but otherwise you could skip this one.
Liam the Leprechaun Loves to Fart
By: Humor Heals Us
Of the two farting books in this list, Liam the Leprechaun Loves to Fart has the cuter illustrations. The rhyming also makes it more enjoyable to read aloud. But…it’s a LOT of farting humor. We won’t be keeping either farting book, but I’d probably vote this one over Larry the Farting Leprechaun.
Larry the Farting Leprechaun
By: Jane Bexley
If you’re looking for a book about endless fart jokes and fart talk, then this would be it. I’m all for silly books, but this felt a little over the top to where it stopped being as funny by the end. It’s basically every single way a leprechaun can fart–all the types of farts and all the situations where he might fart. We returned this book…but if you have a child who LOVES fart humor and would find this absolutely hilarious, then it might be worth a try.
The Leprechaun Under the Bed
By: Teresa Bateman
This is the story of a leprechaun who lives under a man’s bed. The man knows leprechauns are good luck so he leaves him alone and starts leaving food for him at each meal. When times get hard and he can’t afford food, the leprechaun provides him with gold coins. The story continues, but there are enough potentially scary things in this story (ghosts, robbers, a frightening cat) that I wouldn’t read this with young children. So…it’s on my skip list.
Leprechaun Gold
By: Teresa Bateman
I think I’m just not a huge fan of Teresa Bateman books. I think the stories are okay, but I don’t love the way they’re written. I did like this story more than The Leprechaun Under the Bed. This one’s about a man finding “gold” in unconventional ways with the help of a leprechaun–instead of real gold, the leprechaun helps him find love. Cute story idea, but the writing and illustrations just don’t do it for me.
The Leprechaun in the Basement
By: Kathy Tucker
This book was written in 1999, and, well…you can tell. The story is about a boy whose parents can’t afford to buy him new baseball shoes and ultimately gets his repaired by the leprechaun living in their basement. I didn’t love the story or the way it was written, so we won’t be re-reading this one.
The best leprechaun board books
If you’re specifically looking for leprechaun-themed board books for babies or toddlers, these are the ones we reviewed, ordered from favorite (and maybe worth buying) to least favorite/skip over:
The Leprechaun’s Big Pot of Gold
By: Patricia Reeder Eubank
I loved the illustrations in this book and thought the story was so cute for toddlers. The leprechaun realizes the only gold he needs is the companionship of a puppy and kitten so (spoiler) he leaves his pot of gold for others to find. I could see us reading this book a lot so we kept it.
Dr. Seuss’s Thing One, Thing Two and the Leprechaun
This book has the classic rhyming structure and cute illustrations you’re used to with Dr. Seuss. Thing One and Thing Two follow a leprechaun to a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I think this is one of the better St. Patrick’s Day board books and worth buying if you have littles.
The Itsy Bitsy Leprechaun
By: Jeffrey Burton
This was another great St. Patrick’s Day board book that’s worth buying. There’s not really a story, but it’s a sweet little rhyming book with bright colors that little readers will love.
This is the Way the Leprechauns Play
By: Arlo Finsy
This book is supposed to be a St. Patrick’s Day nursery rhyme, but the text doesn’t actually rhyme so it reads kind of poorly. Otherwise it’s kind of cute, but I ended up returning it.
Five Little Leprechauns
By: Jeffrey Burton
This book follows the pattern of “five little monkeys jumping on the bed,” but the text is kind of silly and doesn’t flow nearly as well. I didn’t love it as a read-aloud book so this one got returned.
Ten Little Leprechauns
By: Amanda Sobotka
This is a counting backwards book with 3-D plastic leprechaun guys and holes for young children to put their fingers through. It’s okay for littles as an interactive play book, but it also didn’t wow me, so I’d probably skip it.
Happy Leprechaun
By: Brick O’Puffinton
I didn’t love the story enough to keep this book: it’s about a leprechaun who is actually pretty unfortunate, but his real treasure lies in having good friends. The illustrations aren’t great and the little finger puppet kept getting stuck between pages.
The best leprechaun books for young readers
Okay, full disclosure…I didn’t read these books because my son is still young and I have limited time as it is. But…I did check these books out from the library and they look like fun St. Patrick’s Day books for young readers (they’re both short chapter books).
Leprechaun in Late Winter
By: Mary Pope Osborne
Recommended for 2nd to 5th grade. 111 pages, plus some facts at the end. I loved Magic Tree House books as a kid so I’m confident young readers would like this one for St. Patrick’s Day!
The Leprechaun Is Finally Gone!
By: Dan Gutman
Recommended for 1st to 5th grade. 104 pages, plus extras at the end (St. Patrick’s Day facts and games). I haven’t read any books in the My Weird School series, but there are a lot…so I’ve got to assume they’re popular.
The best leprechaun children’s books for St. Patrick’s Day
Hopefully you found these reviews helpful and you’ve narrowed down which books you want to read with your kids this St. Patrick’s Day! Which holiday books should I do next?
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