I don’t know about you, but for me, St. Patrick’s Day is one of the first big things that says "Spring is on the way!” And that’s super exciting because spring is just such a lovely time of year! So, to help you start to celebrate all the new beginnings that start in spring, here are my current favorite St. Patrick’s Day picture books along with a few ideas for how to use each one to teach some reading, writing, or phonics skills.

Also…SPOILER ALERT: I’ll give a quick synopsis of what each book is about and the literacy skills I think you could easily teach and practice using each book. So, just so I don’t spoil the ending of the stories for you if you wanted to be surprised, you’ve been fairly warned. Haha! :)

** This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase any of the products that I personally love and am linking to below, I’ll receive a small percentage of the profit that the website makes from your purchase at no extra cost to you. :) So, it’s a win-win-win! **

1. Ten Lucky Leprechauns by Kathryn Heling

This story is a cute, little story that goes through the day finding and counting 10 lucky leprechauns! The super bright, adorable illustrations are perfect for young learners It’s poem-like structure gives plenty of opportunity to practicing identifying rhyming words, number sequence, and even sequence of events!

If you need a fun little sensory bin to go along with this story, CLICK HERE to check out this number recognition and number order sensory bin to go along with the book!

2. The Night Before St. Patrick’s Day by Natasha Wing

The Night Before St. Patrick’s Day is a charming little book that follows a “Night Before Christmas” flow and tells all the things kids do the night before St. Patrick’s Day. It tells the story of two kids who are working super hard to figure out how to catch a leprechaun for St. Patrick’s Day and shows them working through a bunch of ideas.

The illustrations are super cute and the rhyming nature of the writing is great for practicing phonics skills like rhyming and ending sounds. It would also be a GREAT springboard for writing about how students would catch their own leprechauns and maybe even create their own traps, making a perfect spring STEM activity!

3. That’s What Leprechaun’s Do by Eve Bunting

This is the story of 3 leprechauns who see rain coming and need to get the pot of gold to the end of the rainbow. As they journey to the end of the rainbow, they get into trouble all along the way, but that’s what leprechauns do! You follow along with all their adventures and shenanigans along the way until they finally accomplish their job and then wait for the next rainy day.

This is a great book for practicing comprehension, sequence of events, changing the ending of the story, making predictions, or even a chance to give the story a new ending with their very own story. Lots of great academic connections with this one!

4. The Luckiest St. Patrick’s Day by Teddy Slater

This story is another rhyming book, all about a little leprechaun family! They’re off to a St. Patrick’s Day parade and the whole family has a part to play. The story describes what each family member is contributing to the parade and then how they get food ready for more leprechauns after the march.

Aside from the obvious rhyming word practice, this book is really great for some unique vocabulary words and as inspiration for story writing.

5. How to Catch a Leprechaun by Adam Wallace

This book starts with a little leprechaun telling the reader all the tricks and shenanigans he plans on doing on St. Patrick’s Day! He makes fun of the silly traps the children set to try to trap him and explains why each trap won’t work to catch him. At the very end, it leaves the reader with the challenge of who will be the one to finally think up a trap creative enough to catch him!

This book uses a lot of unique vocabulary words to explore together, makes a GREAT springboard for STEM projects, and would make a fun way to practice comprehension by retelling the story using pictures or words.

6. Jack and the Leprechaun by Ivan Robertson

This sweet book is about Jack Mouse who’s invited to a St. Patrick’s Day party in Ireland! He meets his cousins there and talks to his whole extended family about their St. Patrick’s Day traditions, celebrations, and folktales, the most interesting being the story of Liam the Leprechaun. This special leprechaun shows up each year on St. Patrick’s Day and no one has ever caught him, despite trying. As everyone helps to get ready for the big party, Jack goes out to look for shamrocks in the woods and runs into Liam the Leprechaun! He’s so excited and tries to catch him, but the leprechaun gets away. His family doesn’t believe him and tells him that’s just a silly story, but a gift from Liam the Leprechaun changes everyone’s thoughts.

7. The Leprechaun in the Basement by Kathy Tucker

This book is about a leprechaun named O’Leary who came the city of Chicago in a trunk from Ireland. The leprechaun led a quiet life by himself and his gold. A young boy named Michael lived in the same house and one day he notices that his baseball shoes can’t be used again and his family doesn’t have money to buy new ones. When he goes into the basement and hears singing, he meets O’Leary the Leprechaun! Michael thinks about the ways he could help his family with the leprechaun’s gold, but O’Leary wouldn’t share. In the end, O’Leary remembers that he was a shoemaker in Ireland and he creates a new pair of baseball shoes for Michael that turn out to be very lucky!

This sweet story is great for teaching perseverance and optimism, as well as reading comprehension, vocabulary exploration, and compare/contrast skills.

8. The Story of the Leprechaun by Katherine Tegen

The Story of the Leprechaun is a book about a little leprechaun who makes shoes for all kinds of people and creatures around him. They all pay him with pieces of gold, which he keeps safe in an old metal pot in his home. But one day, a man named Tim comes to get shoes from the leprechaun, spots his gold, and begins to devise a plan to capture the leprechaun for his magic and his gold. The leprechaun quickly buries his gold, but Tim captures him and makes three wishes, which the leprechaun must grant. But, the clever leprechaun tricks Tim in the end and decides to bury his gold where people would never find it…the end of the rainbow.

This book is full of opportunities to make inferences, make predictions, and recall the sequence of events. It’s also a good story for practicing cause and effect, as well as main idea and details.

9. Fiona’s Luck by Teresa Bateman

This book is the magical story of how the little leprechauns need to make a change because all of the big people coming to Ireland are soaking up all their luck! So they decided to scoop up the luck and store it so it could be passed around as needed. But, the caught SO much luck that there was none left for all of Ireland and nothing was working out in the country. So, a woman named Fiona decided to be clever enough to get some luck from the leprechauns. Soon, rumors started about how Fiona had so much luck because she was always telling everyone how lucky she was to have what she had. Unexpectedly, Fiona finds herself speaking with the leprechaun king, explaining where she’d found her luck. He thinks she’s lying baout having luck when she says she has none, so they strike a deal and the king tests her many ways to find out where she got her luck from. She’s proven to be truthful about her luck and is granted one wish. She wishes for there to be a hole in the chest where all the luck is kept and returns luck to Ireland, proving the value of cleverness!

This is such a unique and interesting story, giving plenty of opportunity to learn about character traits, comparing/contrasting, vocabulary practice, and sequencing events. It would also be a great book for practicing main idea and details because there are SO many unique details in this sweet story.

There are my top picks for the year, y’all! I hope you’ve found a few lucky books to share with your little learners.

Cheering you on and wishing you lots of luck!