The day that Katie O’Reilly met Paddy Fitzpatrick had started out like most other school days. Katie slept through her alarm. Her sister, Ellen, woke her by yelling in her ear. The shower was lukewarm because she was the last one to use it. She only had tme to eat half her breakfast. Ellen didn’t wait for her. Finally, just as she bounded through her front gate she saw the school bus pull away from the stop on the corner.
‘Here we go again,’ Katie sighed.
Katie’s day may have begun in a familiar way, but her walk to school soon changes that. It’s not every day you meet a leprechaun in your local park. Paddy Fitzpatrick, leprechaun, is bored and uninspired, and somehow it’s up to Katie to help him out. Not that Paddy makes it easy. He’s not sure what he wants, except that he wants something different. He’s a shoemaker and he’s bored with his usual work. Katie spends the day helping him regain his mojo. Along the way, Paddy shares unfamiliar tellings of familiar fairy tales, until Katie’s not sure what to believe about anything.
Little Rockets is a new series from New Frontier Publishing. Each title mixes reality with a little bit of magic. Katie and The Leprechaun provides an Australian solution to an Irishman’s quandary. Along the way there are giggles and twists, frustrations and fun. These short novels are perfect for newly confident readers. The text is widely spaced on the page and interspersed with colour illustrations. Grounding this story in reality gives the reader a safe place to begin, before floating them off into the delightful world of make believe. Recommended for lower- to mid-primary readers.
Katie and The Leprechaun, Kathryn England ill Emma Stuart
New Frontier Publishing 2012 ISBN: 9781921928239
review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author
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