THE TOYS' CHRISTMAS - Claire Clément and Geneviève Godbout

 


It is Christmas Eve and young Noah is excited and ready for bed so that Santa can come while he's asleep, but he wants his favorite stuffed animal, an elephant named Fanfan, but Fanfan is missing! What Noah doesn't know is that Fanfan has snuck out of the house to join the other soft toys from around the world to visit with Santa in order to tell him what their child wants most of all.

Will Fanfan get to the North Pole in time and tell Santa what Noah wants most of all? Will Fanfan make it back home to celebrate Christmas?

This is a cute little picture book with a Christmas theme. And with the stress and hubbub that might exist in a household around Christmastime this book might just help a child who can't find their favorite toy ("it's not missing, it's gone to tell Santa want you want").

The book also answers another questions that might come up from time to time ... why doesn't Santa bring a baby sister or baby brother when that's what a child wants the most?

That's a great question and nicely answered but the question came out of nowhere  - or, rather, it isn't part of the story, really. It's a question one of the other stuffed animals asks. But on my first reading of the book I had to go back to the beginning to see if I was missing something.  Was Noah wanting a baby brother or sister right from the start? Nope.  That's just a little something extra thrown in. But for a 32 page book it seems too much when it isn't tied to the story.

The art is soft and cute. A big part of any picture book is whether or not the art work lends itself to being studied by a child while a parents reads the words. In general, I think yes with this book.

But the book is just a little bit wanting. The story is almost too simple, with a big moment tossed in that isn't even part of the story, and then we're done.

In my house, this is the sort of book that would get purchased, read to the children in the weeks before Christmas, but probably not one of the books that the kids themselves would request to have read to them. 

Looking for a good book? The Toys' Christmas by Claire Clément and Geneviève Godbout is a cute Christmas story ... but not likely to be requested for multiple readings by the children in your family.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

2-1/2 stars

* * * * * *

The Toys' Christmas

author: Claire Clément 

artist: Geneviève Godbout

publisher: Frances Lincoln Children's Books

ISBN: 9780711266391

hardcover, 32 pages

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

VINYL RESTING PLACE - Olivia Blacke

Image
 Juni Jessup and her two sister, Tansy and Maggie, have gone into business together in their hometown of Cedar River, Texas, opening a combination record store and coffee shop. Vinyl LPs are making a comeback after all, despite critics thinking the medium was dead.  But speaking of 'dead' ... finding a dead body in the supply closet just as they are looking to have a grand opening is not part of the plan.  Juni's life gets more complicated when their uncle, Calvin, already a suspect in the murder, disappears. And the police officer leading the investigation is Juni's EX-boyfriend (who passive-aggressively keeps putting himself back into her life). Convinced that her uncle would never murder anyone, Juni sets out to prove his innocence - which isn't easy since he's making himself look guilty - because Calvin is family and family is EVERYthing to Juni. As readers of my blog know, I'm not a big fan of most cozy mysteries, but the setting caught my eye and my in...
Read more

THE WALLED CITY - Ryan Graudin

Image
  Jin and her sister, Mei Yee, were taken and sold and then sent to the lawless Walled City to serve as prostitutes or slaves to anyone willing to pay. Jin managed to escape her captivity, but not the Walled City and she now lurks about, disguised as a boy and is trying to track down the brothel where her sister is still captive. Jin will work odd delivery jobs to earn a small bit of money and hopefully have a legitimate means of coming in contact with her sister's captors.  This is how she meets up with Dai, a mysterious boy who has somehow managed to avoid running with any of the gangs in the city but he seems to have his own unusual connections, which Jon could desperately use if she has any hope of finding Mei Yee. But Dai has his own desperate needs.  The story is told from the different perspectives of each character and we do bounce around quite a bit as the chapters are generally short. This never bothered me, which is slightly unusual as often I find this techni...
Read more

THE RAVEN THIEF - Gigi Pandian

Image
 With Tempest Raj now a member of the company, Secret Staircase Construction (a company who, as their title suggests, builds mystery-themed, secret rooms inside homes) has finished their first job. Their client now wants to celebrate to kick off her new beginning - new home and new life now that she's divorced from her cheating ex-husband, famous mystery author Corbin Colt. First up, a mock séance to remove any trace of Corbin from the property, led by Tempest's friend, Sanjay.   But during that séance, while all those gathered sat in a dark room holding hands, Corbin's dead body crashes the party, falling across the table in front of everyone. There were eight people in the room, and they were all holding hands, but all the evidence points to one of them being the murderer.  Suspicions point to Ash, Tempest's grandfather, because he was the only one with Corbin's blood on him. Of course, as a doctor, he was also the only one who checked on the body - ...
Read more