Leprechaun vs. Easter Bunny

The hilltop “where the clover is green,/ and rainbows are brighter/ than you’ve ever seen” isn’t big enough for the St. Patrick’s Day leprechaun, portrayed with light skin, and the Easter Bunny in this holiday mash-up. The two mascots quickly escalate their tussle over the turf where the leprechaun wants to bury treasure and the bunny has planted tulips. Their prank war leaves them tired and sore, but when pink-skinned Cupid arrives on the scene trying to use the hill as a staging area for next Valentine’s Day, the indignant leprechaun and bunny join forces, brought together by Cupid as common enemy. Tarpley’s rigorously rhyming text sustains high levels of animation-style one-upmanship throughout, and Laberis’s digital artwork gets all the seasonal imagery right, with eggs, baskets, gold coins, tulips, and hearts strewn across the green grass, and four-leaf clovers under a rainbow’s glow. Ages 4–8. (Feb.)