“Peppa Pig: Peppa Loves St. Patrick’s Day” tells the tale of
Peppa Pig’s adventure in Ireland with her family to celebrate St. Patrick’s
Day. When the St. Patrick’s Day festival is canceled due to the musicians not
having their instruments, Peppa and her family save the day with souvenir
instruments they bought.
While this book has a bird’s-eye view of how the holiday is celebrated, it fails to have any substance on why the holiday is celebrated. This may be good for younger readers, but it is still important to teach kids about holidays from a young age. Kids can learn new things, even at a really young age, and learning about different cultures and why they celebrate certain holidays is crucial.
Several parts of this book are ludicrous. If the family
knows they are going to a St. Patrick’s Day celebration, they should have
packed something green. It is hard to believe that a random gift shop would sell
instruments like an accordion and a fiddle. Some vendors at Celtic festivals in
the United States sell tin whistles, so that is believable, but the other
instruments are less likely to be sold in this context.
The overall plot of the story is a bit bland. There is very little
action, and if the goal is to educate rather than entertain, there is very
little information about St. Patrick’s Day. It would have been beneficial to
have information about who St. Patrick was and why he is celebrated. Even
something as basic as mentioning that he is one of the patron saints of Ireland
would be helpful.
The book could be good for really little kids (2 and
younger), but toddlers older than this may be bored with the book. Adults may
also find this book boring to read to their kids, especially compared to other
St. Patrick’s Day books. The plot is very simple and basic, without any real
context for the holiday being celebrated.
Overall, this book is a brief overview of St. Patrick’s Day,
but it is in no way a definitive book on teaching kids about the holiday and
its origins. The plot is simple and boring, providing a basic overview of
Ireland. There is some additional cultural information on the back, but that is
still more focused on Ireland than on the holiday being focused on in the book.