BooksForKidsBlog

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Night of the Leprechaun: The Night Before St. Patrick's Day by Natasha Wing

'Twas the night before St. Patrick's Day,
The day to wear green.
Not a creature was stirring,
Except Tim and Maureen.

They carefully made traps
With gold charms and rings.
"I bet we catch a leprechaun.
They love shiny things!"

Maureen and Tim's clever homemade leprechaun traps are all set and the two go to bed with "visions of gold coins dancing in their heads." But when they wake to their dad's bagpipe tunes and their mom's green egg breakfast, they have another surprise waiting:

And what to their wondering eyes should appear--
A big mess! "A leprechaun was here!"

And then inside a trap,
They heard someone giggling.
A real-life leprechaun!
They both saw him wriggling.

The children approached him. They stared straight in his eyes.
"Tell us where the gold is.
Don't be tricky--no lies!"


But out-thinking a leprechaun isn't easy, and for all their preparation, the luck is, as always, on the side of the leprechaun in Natasha Wing's newest holiday spoof of the Clement Moore classic, The Night Before St. Patrick's Day (Reading Railroad) (Scholastic, 2009). Irish eyes will be smiling at this green and gold romp through the fun of St. Paddy's Day, filled with Wing's bouncy rhymes and Amy Wummer's cheery pastel illustrations of two kids who take on the challenge at the end of the rainbow.

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1 Comments:

  • Thank you for your wonderful review! I love Amy's illustrations, and hope kids will get a kick out of the ending. Think green!

    By Blogger Natasha Wing, at 3:00 PM  

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