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.

Everyone's Irish! Happy St. Patrick's Day, Curious George by Cynthia Platt

TOP O' THE MORNING, GEORGE!
IT'S TIME TO ROMP AND PLAY
WITH A PARTY, DANCING, AND PARADE
EVERYONE'S IRISH TODAY!

LITTLE MONKEY TOP HAT,
FANCY GREEN PLAID VEST.
GEORGE PICKS OUT HIS FINEST
SO THAT HE'LL LOOK HIS BEST.

It's the day for the "wearin' o' the green," and George is all decked out properly for St. Paddy's Day. But--look! The Man with the Yellow Hat is wearing his usual all-yellow outfit! What a party pooper. And not even green eggs and ham for breakfast!

Oh, well.  George heads out to the park for the festivities.  He joins some kids at the craft table and cuts out some shamrocks.  Then he moves on to the hunt for the leprechaun's golden coins--the chocolate kind. George bags a bagful and then catches the strain of some lively fiddle and pipes playing.  Some girls in fancy green dresses and bouncy curls are dancing, and George can't resist trying Irish dancing!

GEORGE JUMPS IN
WITH A GRIN.
MONKEY TOES
A-TAPPING.

George spots something special as he taps in the green grass--a four-leafed clover.  It must be the luck of the Irish, for sure.

Then George smells something good and moves on to a table piled high with Irish dishes and bright green punch.  George reaches up and up and oops! The punch bowl totters, tips, and falls--kersplash, just as the the Man with the Yellow Hat comes up to join George.

OH, NO! OH, MY! WHAT HAS HE DONE?
GEORGE JUMPS UP TO CLEAN.
HE SMILES AT HIS GOOD FRIEND AND SEES
AT LAST HE'S WEARING GREEN!

Begorra! With his total outfit splashed with emerald-hued punch, the Man With the Yellow Hat is now wearing green just in time to join the St. Patrick's Day Parade with George, in Happy St. Patrick's Day, Curious George tabbed board book (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014). In this latest holiday adventure, George takes preschoolers along on a tour of St. Patrick's Day-themed fun. With jolly quatrains by Cynthia Platt and plenty of green in the illustrations by Mary O'Keefe Young, H.A. Rey's classic character shows youngsters how to celebrate all the Irish-themed festivities (conveniently tabbed) of St. Patrick's Day.

For a truly green storytime, pair this one with Natasha Wing's The Night Before St. Patrick's Day (see my review here).

Sweets for the Sweet! Bagel in Love by Natasha Wing

BAGEL LOVED TO DANCE.

IT MADE HIM HAPPIER THAN BIRTHDAY CAKE.

In spring a young man's fancy may turn to thoughts of love, but Bagel just wants to dance--and that requires a partner. Poppy Seed Roll is the peppiest bread in the basket, but she turns him down flatter than a fritter. Pretzel crisply declines the honor, rating Bagel's footwork as downright cheesy. Donut's eyes appear to grow glazed at the idea of dancing with Bagel. Matzo turns him down flat. Croissant just rolls her eyes.

"ARE YOU TRYING TO BUTTER US UP?" SHE ASKS.

But Bagel roundly ignores all their denials and heads off to Sweet City to try his luck in the dance contest.

He auditions with a tap dance in the style of famed film star Fred Eclair, but the French roll pronounces his routine stale.

But then Bagel catches a glimpse of the sweetest pastry product of all. Cupcake accepts his invitation to the dance, and they give their steps a twirl around the dance floor. It's a match made in Bakery Heaven, in Natasha Wing's latest wordplay-filled winner, Bagel in Love (Sterling Books, 2018).

Veteran author Natasha Wing, the author of the ever-popular The Night Before.... series, liberally adds a dash of freshly half-baked word wit into the recipe for this pun-filled fun read, illustrated heartily in yummy pastels with plenty of sprinkles that may leave young readers smiling but strangely craving carbs.

Other satisfying rhyming stories by Natasha Wing include The Night Before St. Patrick's Day and The Night Before Easter.

Swallowing Shamrocks? There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Clover by Lucille Colandro

THERE WAS AN OLD LADY WHO SWALLOWED A CLOVER.
BUT SHE DIDN'T ROLL OVER!

It wouldn't be a holiday (or, as reference books put it more exactly, a "day usually observed") without one of Lucille Colandro's swallowing sagas about that old lady with eccentric ingestive preferences, and St. Patrick's Day is no longer an exception. The prolific Colandro has produced a new one for St. Paddy's Day, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Clover! (Scholastic, 2012).

Colandro draws a pass for choosing the word "clover" in place of the more specific "shamrock" here. In fact, this special day has fewer popular symbols to work with than, say, Christmas or Halloween, and it's not that easy to find rhymes for shamrocks and shillelaghs either! The author settles for spring-like images, such as butterflies, daisies, and birds, but finally has her gluttonous old lady ingest a fiddle, which sets her to dancing an Irish jig, which induces her to cough up a rainbow to mark the pot of gold belonging to, you guessed it, that long-awaited leprechaun waiting in the wings for his big moment.

BEFORE SHE WAS DONE,
A WEE LITTLE LEPRECHAUN!
JOIN IN THE FUN.
HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

And why not, with Jared Lee's familiarly squiggly illustrations and plenty o' the green to set off that pot of gold. So pin on your shamrocks and get ready for Colandro's gustatory verses honoring the Emerald Isle.

Still hungry? Then try a taste of Natasha Wing's ever-green take-off on an oh-so-familiar rhyme scheme in The Night Before St. Patrick's Day (Reading Railroad). And if it's being over a diet of clover ye are, sip a few spoonfuls of Hudson Talbot's spicy O'Sullivan Stew (Picture Puffins). That should get ye in the mood for the green scene!