Too Many Leprechauns by Stephen Krensky

The story begins:

Finn O'Finnegan looked like a rogue and walked like a rascal, so it was widely thought that he was at least one of the other. And his shadow, which followed him closely and knew all of his secrets, might have said he was both."

What an enchanting funny story this one is. When Finn returns to his village after a stay in Dublin, he finds not all is well. It seem that the Leprechauns have been keeping the entire village, including his blessed mother, up all night with their constant tapping as they make shoes for the fairies. It seems that the more shoes the leprechauns can make, the more gold they will get, fairy gold, and as everyone knows, leprechauns dearly love their gold!

What to do? The villagers need their sleep, the leprechauns want more gold and Finn is primarily interesting in kicking back and getting fat on his mother's soda bread. A leprechauns may be a crafty little creatures, shrewd little imps of the night and twilight, but they are no match for our rascally and roguish Fin O'Finnegan! He has a plan and the next day he presents himself to the wee workaholics.

What continues is a battle of wits and let's face it, your average leprechaun has no chance against a good Irishman at any time. Needless to say, Finn saves his village and gets his soda bread.

Talking Points:::
I love the art work in this one. The full page oils by Dan Andreasen are wonderfully executed and I must say that this artist has his Wee People down pat. Children love to just look at the pictures in this one, as you, the adult will. Each painting illustrates the text perfectly.

I must again take umbrage with Publishers Weekly and feel children will have no trouble what so ever in understanding the magical logic Finn uses to trick the leprechauns...hey, this is not rocket science stuff here and any kid worth his salt knows more about such things than we adults do anyway. I also note that the School Library Journal is carping that the text does not explain the appearance of the rainbow as there is no mention of moisture. Well to begin with, this is a fantasy Library People...you don't have to have a scientific reason for throwing in a rainbow and I doubt if many kids of the targeted age will lose much sleep over this. But in any case, you are wrong. If you will note that in the morning when Finn pulls his trick that "the mist still lay heavy on the air." Finn has thee leprechauns hurry to the field before the sun came out so he could catch the first rays. Hey folks, read the book before you write the review please! Besides, this work is not part of the curriculum of science 101...who cares?

All in all this is a wonderful March tale which is actually good for any time of the year. I like this one and is equal to any of the other work this author and artist have turned out...which is all quite good.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks