Customer Reviews

Jack and the Leprechaun (Pictureback(R))

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My 3-1/2 year old daughter and I both love this book! Jack Mouse travels to Ireland (via the Galway Bay ship) to visit his relations for St. Patrick's Day. The little mouse enjoys some real Irish hospitality and along the way chases a legendary leprechaun. My daughter learned about shamrocks, a shillelagh, soda bread and "cead mile failte". This is a great read for both parent and child. The illustrations are lovely too. I enjoy reading it to my daughter almost every night and she loves to giggle "Tee hee hee" along with Liam the Leprechaun.

There is no excuse for not buying this book if you are looking for a way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with your child. The paperback is very inexpensive and as such one might think it doesn't have much to offer but it does.

Ivan Robertson managed to write a cute story of a leprechaun while packing a lot of Irish culture and history into this little book. For instance we learn about the date and type of celebration one has in Ireland, what a shillelagh (shaw lay lee) is, what "Cead mile failte" (cade meela fall-cha) expresses, that Gaelic is their oldest language, why shamrocks are important, that green is the national color of Ireland, soda bread is traditional, and "Danny Boy" is a song special to the Country.

Katy Braun's illustrations are fun, festive, and green. This is the best St. Patrick's day book I have found so far for my wee lass.

Read this to a first grade class. Lots of sights of how St. Patrick's Day is celebrated in Ireland: parade, special food, a family gathering. The children liked the added feature that it was a mystery to guess what the mice received at the end of the book.

Bought this book to read to my 4 year old granson. He LOVED it! Nice illustrations and good story. Perect for the holiday.
J.

My son's name is Liam so he LOVED reading about Liam the Leprechaun. It kept his interest and the illustrations were great. We read this book several times a night for days!

Ivan Robertson writes a delightful yarn about Irish customs and folklore. The story mentions Gaelic, the oldest language in Ireland, the oak club called a shillelagh, and the importance of the three-leaf clover. The 24-page book is recommended for children 3 to 7 years, which I think is appropriate for the age group. The text is easy to read, and doesn't bite off more than it can chew like many works attempt to do.

Jack and the Leprechaun is illustrated in watercolor, which is bright and cheerful and bursting with details. One could literally spend an hour looking at all the fine points painted into the scenes. The only inharmonious feature of the book is Katy Bratun's version of the Irish flag. The Irish flag is green, white, and orange not orange, white, and orange. Most readers won't notice such minutia, but it is curious with all the research required for this work, the illustrator got it wrong. I only spotted it because I have a bit of Irish in me.

My son, William, is currently into leprechauns, and it's no wonder with his beautiful red hair, and traditional name. He's taking a liking to Jack and the Leprechaun I think mostly because Liam is short for William, and everybody knows leprechauns have red hair. Somehow at five, I think it's okay to identify with the fairies even though their fabled creatures. Had I known when I purchased this book that there were so many well-written leprechaun stories, I surely would have settled on another. Although, considering the economical price, it's hard to be critical.

This is a cute inexpensive St. Patrick's Day book. Jack helps his cousin Sean, but also looks for Liam the Leprechaun. M

This book looked very cute, but it's not a very fun read for me or for my 3 yo. The author tries to pack way too many Irish words and phrases into the story, which gets in the way of the narrative. After reading it once, she never asked for it again. St. Patrick's Day in the Morning, illustrated by Jann Brett, is a much more engaging read.