Parent's Guide to Story Reading Sanity
by Linda Bailey & Genevieve Godbout
Recommended ages: 3-8
Parent’s have great plans for their kids, and Santa Claus’ parents were no different... but like every parent eventually finds out, babies are born with their own personality in tact.
The book cover made me curious - not many stories spend a lot of time exploring Santa’s childhood years. One page in and I was hooked. The characters were lively, unpredictable, and incredibly human.
Parents will enjoy this book because... It’s quite humorous, there aren’t too many words (no reader fatigue), and they will be able to identify with Santa’s parents angst as they try to rationalize their child’s strange behavior, and then ultimate pride as their youngster becomes something they could never have imagined, and yet they take credit for it or say as Santa’s dad concludes at the end, “We knew it all the time!”
Children will enjoy this book because... I gotta be honest.. they’ll like it because they get to see
baby Santa’s little bare bum on a few pages. Potty humour works every time. The greater appeal for kids, I think however, is because as readers, they are “in on a secret.” Your child already knows who Santa Claus is, but the parents in the book have to slowly figure it out. Each page reveals a little bit more as we get closer to end and it’s fun to watch Santa’s development on the way to becoming the old man on a sleigh we see him as today. Kids are also going to be able to identify with Santa - a kid who does weird and creative stuff that his parents don’t totally understand!
CONCLUSION: The illustrations are funny. The story is well written and quite humorous. The process humanizes Santa into someone that children can identify with. I couldn’t have anticipated how this story would develop, even though the ending was clear.
This book gets 4 kids thumbs up, 1 Dad thumbs up, and 2 definite Songs & Stories with Heidi thumbs up!
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