Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato: An Irish Folktale

Jamie O'Rourke was the laziest man in Ireland, leaving all of the hard work of cultivating potatoes to his wife Eileen. When Eileen took to her bed after a back injury, and Jamie was left to fend for himself, that hapless layabout ended up embroiled in an adventure with a leprechaun, winning, not a pot of gold, but the seed for the biggest potato in the world. The VERY big potato which grew from this seed proved a challenge to dig up and consumer, but fortunately the local villagers were there to lend a hand, and after a year of endless potato dishes, decided to step in when Jamie proposed planting another seed...

Published in 1992, Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato was the first of two picture books from author/illustrator Tomie dePaola show more devoted to the doings of the eponymous hero, followed in 2000 by Jamie O'Rourke and the Pooka. It was published as part of dePaola's own Whitebird Books collection, an imprint of G.P. Putnam's Sons that was active in the early 1990s, and which included a number of folk tales from around the world. As with all of the other titles I have read from this collection, no attribution is given for the folktale in question, something which I generally dislike, as I want to know the source material for such stories. Leaving that aside, this was an entertaining book, pairing a humorous tale with dePaola's trademark illustrations. The lazy fool who is rewarded is a definite character type in folklore, so it was interesting to see this Irish variant. I just wish I knew where dePaola had found it! Recommended to young folklore enthusiasts, and to anyone looking for funny folktales from Ireland. show less

Jamie O'Rourke, the laziest man in Ireland, accidentally stumble upon a leprechaun, who gives him a seed for a giant potato instead of his pot of gold. Everyone thinks Jamie has been duped, until his potato starts growing. It's so large, it keeps the whole town fed all winter. Except now, they never want potatoes every again. The town agrees to feed Jamie and his wife from now on - as long as they don't grow another giant potato! Did Jamie get the better of the leprechaun, after all?

I'm a little torn about this book. I think the story and the accompanying illustrations are great! I think the illustrations are simple, and easily interpreted by all ages. The thing that I don't really care for about the book is the moral. I was waiting for Jamie to realize the error of his lazy ways, but in the end of the book, he ends up being rewarded for being lazy and never earns his lesson. Essentially the big idea of this book is supposed to be that "it's not always best to take the easy way out" but it comes across as "Taking the easy way out still pays off in the long run."

The story about Jamie O’Rourke is the second one of the same series that I have read. Wonderfully written and illustrated by Tomie dePaola does a great job in making me laugh. This story is about the very lazy Jamie O’Rourke, who does not want to take care of his garden when his wife wasn’t able to do it. He meets a leprechaun who tricks him into not giving him the gold, but instead giving him a big potato seed. When he plants the big seed and it grows, it blocks the people from entering and leaving the village. To solve this problem, everybody takes a piece of the big potato. I think this books illustration was the best from what I’ve seen of Tomie dePaola. Depaola does a great job in bringing the meaning of the text out. For show more example, he writes about the villagers getting sick of the potato over time and shows this by putting pictures of the same people eating it 2 or 3 times. I enjoyed reading this book for humorous reasons but do not believe it has a moral. show less

Jamie O'Rourke, the laziest man in Ireland, accidentally stumble upon a leprechaun, who gives him a seed for a giant potato instead of his pot of gold. Everyone thinks Jamie has been duped, until his potato starts growing. It's so large, it keeps the whole town fed all winter. Except now, they never want potatoes every again. The town agrees to feed Jamie and his wife from now on - as long as they don't grow another giant potato! Did Jamie get the better of the leprechaun, after all?

Fairly typical of Irish trickster tales and of dePaola's work. O'Rourke is a mortal, though, and so this didn't engage me as much as the Finn McCool stories.

I chose to read "Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato" because I am a huge fan of Tomie DePaola, having read many of his books as a child. The book features DePaola's classic illustrations, which are very cute, colorful, and simple - his artwork is one of the reasons I loved DePaola's books so much when I was young. However, I really did not care for the story (which I suppose isn't really DePaola's fault as the book is an Irish folk tale)for several reasons. Jamie gets to live happily ever after off of the fruits of his neighbors labors because of a situation that came out of his own laziness. What kind of a message is that to spread to young children? Second of all, the term "potato seeds" kept being used, which is completely inaccurate show more because potatoes do not grow from seeds but in fact grow from the shoots of other potatoes. Even though most readers probably would not question the potato seeds, it really bothered me and kept me from enjoying the story. show less