Gerald McDermott «Daniel O’Rourke»

Tim O’Toole and his wife, Kathleen, are so poor they have not a penny or a potato between them. Even their cats are too skinny for the mice to chase! When Tim goes out to find a job, he stumbles upon “the wee folk”—a band of leprechauns who give him gifts to make his fortune. That is, if Tim can keep clear of the evil McGoon family.

The telling here has a well-honed, Irish lilt; the illustrations, by a Caldecott winner, are lively, expressive, and well sprinkled with sprightly men in green.