I'm not even
gonna deny it this time, I'm down to the last of my get out of jail free cards.
This one is a complete stretch and I'm not ashamed to admit it. But with only
six weeks to go after this I'm really not in the habit of caring how much I bend
the rules so long as I don't give up.
In my head completing this means I can
finish something I started. For someone who’s never been able to do that her
whole life, this needs to happen. I need to unlock this door before I can start
to open new ones.
Anyway, that’s
the personal bit out of the way. This week’s book is asking me to read
something that is set in the future. I’m sure there’s plenty out there to
choose from. But with me prepping my house for Christmas today and with my
beloved after school club prepping for a Christmas concert, I knew the second I
saw this book that it would be the ideal choice.
The Night
Before The Night Before Christmas is an homage to the legendary poem by Clement
C Moore, who’s charming tale told us all about a regular man’s encounter with
the larger than life St Nicholas. Written by Kes Gray ( the author of the hilarious
‘Oi Frog’) and illustrated by Claire Powell, it tells us the backstory of what
happened the night before Christmas Eve.
There’s
tonnes of work to be done in Father Christmas’ workshop. He, Mrs Christmas and
all the elves are hard at work getting the last of the things ready. But in
amidst all the chaos there is something that Santa has clearly forgotten to do.
Will it mess up his plans for Christmas? Will children get their presents? Will
the reindeer get up from their year long hibernation and fly? Only the end of the
book will tell!
Written in a
grand combination of simple and yet traditional language it features a few
words that children might not ordinarily come across. In spite of this fact, it’s
easy to grasp these unfamiliar words in the context of their surrounding
sentences. Each page features a short verse made up of rhyming couplets. The rhythm of the original poem being echoed throughout the entire piece.
The illustrations are lovely, I don’t know why but they remind me a
little of the warm drawings in the Raymond Briggs’ book The Snowman. They are
nothing really like them, I just think it’s something about their warmth that
makes me think of it.
This book is
easily suitable for any child and would have been one I’d have loved to read to
my children when they were babies. Does it encapsulate the charm of the
original poem whilst still appearing as fresh? Definitely. Is it of the same
calibre as the original? Probably not, but then it doesn’t have to be. It tells
it’s own lovely story. And for that I’m happy to add it to my collection.
A book set
in the future (remember it’s still a month till Christmas Eve Eve) this is book
46 of my 52 book list.
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