St. Patrick’s Day is a fun and exciting holiday for primary students. Indeed, the magic of the leprechaun chasing his pot of gold is still real and inspiring for them. I gathered up a few great books for St Patrick’s Day that tell stories about these fun leprechauns, a few books that tell about the holiday, and even a book that is about luck!
All the books below come with an affiliate link to Amazon.
Read Aloud #1:
The Luckiest St. Patrick’s Day Ever by Teddy Slater
Synopsis: This story has a cute and straightforward plot for students to follow. The leprechauns are all gathering together to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. First, they start their day out with a parade, then end it with a big St. Patrick’s Day feast. Throughout the story, they use rhythm and rhyming to help the book flow. They also use Irish names throughout the story, which is an excellent opportunity to teach about how certain names come from individual cultures and heritage.
St. Patrick’s Day Read Aloud #2:
How to Catch a Leprechaun by Adam Wallace
Synopsis: One reason that I love this story is that it’s within a series, which I’ve suggested a few times before in my Christmas and Thanksgiving book blog posts! It’s a rhyming story told from the point of view of the leprechaun. He tells the children how each of their traps isn’t good enough to catch him. This is also a great book using illustrations that give MUCH more detail than the text provides. Therefore, this can be used to teach the RL7 standards, which covers illustrations and text differences and relationships. The story also ends with a challenge for students to make their own trap, since the leprechaun in the story is never caught.
Read Aloud #3:
St. Patrick’s Day by Gail Gibbons
Synopsis: Gail Gibbons is always a favorite author of mine when it comes to informational text. This text is no different! With simple sentence structure and descriptive illustrations, Gibbons offers the reader a look inside the holiday. She covers the history, the purpose, the customs, and even the leprechaun legends. Additionally, there are two pages at the end of the book that includes historical legends of St. Patrick himself.
St. Patrick’s Day Read Aloud #4:
Fiona’s Luck by Teresa Bateman
Synopsis: This is a fictional tale about leprechauns and humans living in Ireland. The leprechauns roamed the land for a long while, then “giants” came to live there as well. The leprechauns didn’t want them to steal all their luck, so they collected it all to keep in the king’s oak chest. However, this backfired on the leprechauns because the humans had no luck at all, so all of their crops died and their animals weren’t creating food for them. However, a girl named Fiona was able to find this luck to get milk, eggs, and potatoes, unlike her neighbors. The leprechauns found out about this and brought her to the king. This was a sneaky plan all along, though, for Fiona had tricked the king into thinking she had luck to get food and milk. As a result, they made a final bargain to bring luck back to Ireland!
Favorite St. Patrick’s Day Read Aloud #5:
The Night Before St. Patrick’s Day by Natasha Wing
Synopsis: I love this series of book so much! Any ‘night before’ book keeps students very engaged. This story is no different. The two children in the story get ready for this holiday by setting up traps to try to catch a leprechaun. They want to catch him because they think he will tell them where the gold is. One reason why this story is so charming is that the children actually do catch the leprechaun, which in many St. Patrick’s Day fictions, the leprechaun is never caught. So, the kids do successfully catch a leprechaun, but the leprechaun still gets in one final joke on the kids.
Favorite St. Patrick’s Day Read Aloud #6:
There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Clover by Lucille Colandro
Synopsis: This may be my favorite of the great books for St Patrick’s Day. Any Lucille Colandro ‘old lady’ book is a hit with students. It has rhyme and repetition throughout. So, even your students who are working on their early reading skills can help read along. In this specific book, an old lady swallows a clover. Then, she swallows a series of objects such as pots, birds, daisies, and gold. When she started dancing with a leprechaun, she laughed too hard, and all of these objects come flying out. This leads to a great St. Patrick’s Day for her and her leprechaun friend.
St. Patrick’s Day Read Aloud #7:
Jack and the Leprechaun by Ivan Robertson
Synopsis: I’ve had this book in my library since my first year of teaching, so for some reason, I’m very partial to it. It’s a cute story of Jack Mouse traveling to a St. Patrick’s Day party in Ireland. He gets to visit with his family, then goes looking for shamrocks. When he tries to look for shamrocks, he meets the leprechaun. He chases him throughout the town, but can’t catch him. He is later told that it was just his cousin playing a trick on him. However, on the final few pages of the book, we can see in the illustration that a leprechaun is in fact still lurking in Ireland and even leaves a nice treat for Jack!
Read Aloud #8:
Ten Lucky Leprechauns by Kathryn Heling and Deborah Hembrook
Synopsis: The final book I want to recommend to you is Ten Lucky Leprechauns. This is a charming rhyming book that young learners can appreciate. It counts the leprechauns with fun vocabulary and crisp illustrations. The rhyming lines allow students to be able to finish the sentences within the book.
Here are direct links to all 8 great books for St. Patrick’s Day
And here are some extra St. Patrick’s Day READING resources…
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