Book Review: Leprechauns and Irish Folklore by Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce

Leprechauns and Irish Folklore
by Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce
Magic Tree House

Random House Books for Young Readers
ISBN-10: 0-375-86009-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-375-86009-6
Publication Date: January, 2010
List Price: $4.99

Review: Have you ever been to Ireland? Do you think you would like to? If so, you should read Leprechauns and Irish Folklore. It's a research guide that goes with the book Leprechauns in Late Winter, which is #43 in the Magic Tree House series with Jack and Annie. It's by Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce.

Leprechauns and Irish Folklore is about Ireland. Since it's a companion to a fiction book, it has to do with the subject of the other book-Irish folklore! This compelling book teaches you about Ireland's culture and legends. Some individual subjects in this book are leprechauns, the Shee, and Lady Augusta Gregory, who was one of the main characters in Leprechauns in Late Winter. Some other topics are banshees, Douglas Hyde, and merrows. First, according to Irish legend, leprechauns are 'solitary fairies'. Leprechauns wear pointed hats and shiny shoes, with tiny glasses. Some say leprechauns collect money in pots of gold at the end of rainbows. Next, the Shee don't trust humans, and so are invisible to them. They live in kingdoms in hills, caves, or even rivers! The Shee are called trooping fairies. Finally, Lady Augusta Gregory was a snobby girl of about 11 or 12. She came from a rich family, and she had fifteen brothers and sisters. Wow! When she got older, she wrote books about Irish tales just like her friend Douglas Hyde, who was the first president of Ireland.

To sum it up, I thought Leprechauns and Irish Folklore was very informative as far as the Ireland theme. I liked how it gave you background information on all of these subjects, and even more! I also was wondering who was a real person or not, like Lady Gregory or Mary Sheridan, and this cleared up any doubts or confusion that I had about the book. This book was very helpful, and was a good accompanying book to Leprechauns in Late Winter. If you're older and doing research on Ireland, this would be a useful book for you. In addition, if you're a kid from about six to nine years, this would be a very educational and instructive book. Also, you can get a better understanding of the Shee than the regular book tells you, and there are other fairies you never heard of and wouldn't have ever heard of like merrows which are mermaids, banshees, and pookas, who are huge horses that live on top of cliffs. You should definitely read this after reading Leprechauns in Late Winter, which is a first-class, awesome book! All in all, I give this book 5 stars.

Review written by Emily (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Random House for providing a copy of Leprechauns and Irish Folklore for this review.

Have you read Leprechauns and Irish Folklore? How would you rate it?