If you live in Weber County, Utah and you are ever frustrated at the lack of availability of holiday/seasonally-appropriate books at the library, I apologize.  It’s my fault.  Hopefully you can content yourself with contrived little “‘Twas the Night Before _____” picture books with no plot, because the good books are all at my house.  If you really want to read them, just come on over!

Sometimes I worry that the library employees hate me because of the sheer volume of books I request.  I picture them rolling their eyes when they see a list of 20 books of the same subject to be pulled.  They don’t even have to look at the name anymore.  They know who I am.

But then I think of all the late fees and I tell myself that those employees actually pull my books from the shelf with grateful tears welling up in their eyes, knowing that I pay their salaries.  Where would they be without overenthusiastic yet slightly irresponsible readers like me?  And of course they get excited when they put my name on a brand new book – the ones they’re particular about and that cost a lot to replace.  ‘Surely one of her little brats will bend a page here or there.  We’ll get 23 bucks out of her this time!  Bwa ha ha!’  Main library patrons, you know what I’m talking about!

But I digress.  My purpose here is to tell you about the many St. Patrick’s Day books we’ve read and which ones are worth your time and not.

Favorites:

• The Last Snake in Ireland by Sheila MacGill-Callahan
• O’Sullivan Stew by Hudson Talbott
• Leprechauns Never Lie by Lorna Balian
• Fiona’s Luck by Teresa Bateman
• Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato by Tomie dePaola
• S is for Shamrock: An Ireland Alphabet by Eve Bunting
• Green Shamrocks by Eve Bunting

Good:

• This Is Ireland by Miroslav Sasek
• Tim O’Toole and the Wee Folk  by Gerald McDermott
• The Leprechaun Under the Bed by Teresa Bateman
• A Fine St. Patrick’s Day by Susan Wojciechowski
• St. Patrick’s Day in the Morning by Eve Bunting
• That’s What Leprechauns Do by Eve Bunting

Meh:

• The Night Before St. Patrick’s Day by Natasha Wing
• Lucky Tucker by Leslie McGuirk
• Ballywhinney Girl by Eve Bunting*

There you have it.  I was going to write a blurb about each one, but um, that would take forever and be a really long post, so I just linked to Goodreads instead.  So click through, or just trust me and check them out at the library – but you’ll have to beat me to it!

*This one is actually a good book IF you’re wanting to read about finding a mummy in a garden.  It definitely has some nice Irish flavor, but it’s not really on the same plane as all the other mischievous leprechaun stories and funny, cautionary tales of greed and laziness.