How That Pot o’ Gold Got to the End of the Rainbow

Too Many Leprechauns Or How That Pot o’ Gold Got to the End of the Rainbow
Written by: Stephen Krensky Illustrated by: Dan Andreasen
When Finn O’Finnegan returns home from Dublin to the town of Dingle he cannot wait to see his mother, taste her cooking, and rest his feet. Things however, seem a bit loopy; the pigs are taking baths, the cows are drinking milk, the hens are eating eggs, and his mother is defiantly not making her homemade soda bread. We then find out as does Finn that all these disturbed happenings are because of the leprechauns in the backyard building their shoes. This is when Finn decides to trick those little leprechauns into moving. You see, leprechauns are very greedy and love their gold so Finn has the leprechauns meet him in the city to show off their best shoes so Finn, a shoe expert, will grade them. Finn however, has a plan to steal their gold while they wait for him at the city; and so he doesn’t. Once the leprechauns realized their gold was missing they knew just who to blame and so when confronting Finn, a bargain was made. The leprechauns had to move to where Finn hid their gold. In the end the leprechauns of course agreed and moved to where their gold was; at the end of a rainbow. Once the leprechauns had left Finn’s family finally got back to normal.
Like any modern fantasy Good vs. Evil is played out very well in the author’s style of writing. They set Finn as the hero saving his family and the city from the leprechaun’s greediness, noise, and mischievousness. The author used their writing to make dialogue that is very realistic and imaginable even when dealing with human and fake set in another country and with fake creatures. The pictures in this book are marvelous! The illustrator used impressionistic drawings to capture the plot. Every person had a shadow, and all objects in the pictures played with how light shined on them. However, there is one weakness to this story. The story in a way tells children it’s ok to steal if it will get you what you want when Finn steals the gold and hides it until the leprechauns agree to move. This issue of stealing could be used as a advantage; a teacher could use this book as a fun way to teach a serious issue by a discussing stealing and how it is wrong to do. On the positive side a teacher would use this book during St. Patrick’s Day as a holiday book to share with the class as a festive treat!