Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato


Title- Jamie O’Rourke and the Big  Potato 

Author/Retold- Tomie DePaola

Illustrated by Tomie DePaola

Genre- Traditional Literature 

Grade level- 3rd-12th Grade

“Jamie O’Rourke is the laziest man in all of Ireland.” He would always avoid working and his wife Eileen would do all of the work. One day Eileen “wrenched” her back and she had to rest. Jamie O’Rourke thought he was going to starve, so at midnight he started his trek to the church for confession and maybe food. He came upon a leprechaun, caught it and asked, “where do you keep your pot of gold.” The leprechaun only had two coins in his pot and he offered Jamie O’Rourke a wish. He wished for the biggest pratie/potato in the world and a seed was given to him by the leprechaun. Jamie O’Rourke planted it and it indeed grew into the biggest potato in the world. He shared the potato with the whole town and it kept them full for the whole winter, so much so, that the town was fed up with potatos. Jamie O’Rourke told the town he saved one of the eyes from the potato as a seed to plant for the winter again. The town said argued please don’t and promised to give them food just to never have a potato again. I think this is a great story to introduce the chapter of Ireland and English culture in World history. I could use it as a read aloud at the beginning of class and ask them how they think this book pertains to Irish culture and history.


 

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