Mrs Christmas

Author                           : Penny Ives

Age range recommended : 4+

Theme                            : Christmas spirit

Opening lines – 

Last Christmas, there was a near calamity. One morning in late December, Father Christmas woke up and found that he felt quite ill.

Introduction and Synopsis –

In the run up to Christmas, Mrs Christmas finds to her horror that Father Christmas and his reindeer have fallen  sick! They are all covered in spots and it doesn’t seem like they would be able to deliver all the gifts to the children that Christmas. Luckily Mrs Santa Claus is around and decides to take things into her own hands. A multitude of letters to read, toys to be made and delivered on time - would she be able to do it all in time? 

Why did my caterpillar and I like this book?

ME -

There is a Mrs Christmas and she is a hero! It has all the feel good ingredients – beginning with everything poised for a catastrophe, Mrs Christmas works systematically and tirelessly from reading all the letters to getting the toys ready in the workshop. When faced with the bigger predicament of how to deliver all the toys without the reindeer, she beautifully creates a flying machine out of resources available at home. Brilliant! Multiple illustrations are shown for the litter reader to notice and marvel at the efforts taken by Mrs Claus to ensure that Father Christmas’s hardwork all year do not go to waste and innocent children are not deprived of their Christmas joy. The story ends with Father Christmas giving his lovely wife a wonderful surprise the next morning!

The book captures the Christmas spirit beautifully. By way of pictures, the author hasn’t really left out any details -  there are picture frames of Santa and his reindeer in Santa’s house, Mrs Claus wears furry slippers at home and  lipstick too, and of course, there are lots and lots of toys everywhere. Children will be in awe of Father Christmas’s home. What appealed to my little one the most was that Mrs Christmas worked around a solution and helped Father Christmas at his job when he couldn’t. What can be a better judgement of the spirit of giving and sharing?


MY TINY CATERPILLAR - 

She loved the pictures and Santa's house. She generally loves listening to Christmas stories and Santa Claus is her favourite person. It was precious for her to see that Mrs Christmas worked so hard to ensure that all children get their gifts on Christmas day. It also amused her to see how Mrs Christmas made a contraption to fly on, using her bi-cycle, a vacuum cleaner, an umbrella and other everyday stuff!

Online link -

We could not find any online link to the story. 

The cocoon rates it -

3/5  

It is a story which spreads joy in the festive season. In that it succeeds well. It might not be a spectacular Christmas story in itself, but what gave it an edge was the introduction of Mrs Christmas as the heroine who saves the day. We recommend.

One Snowy Night

Author : M Christina Butler
Illustrations by                    : Tina Macnaughton

Age range recommended : 3 -7 years

Theme : Christmas, snow, friendship, giving and kindness

Opening lines –

The cold wind woke Little Hedgehog from his deep winter sleep. It blew his blanket of leaves high into the air and he shivered in the snow. He tried to sleep again, but he was far too cold. Suddenly something fell from the sky….

… B U M P !

It landed right in front of his nose. It was a parcel, and it had his name on it.

Little Hedgehog opened the parcel as fast as he could. Inside was a red woolly bobble hat… hedgehog size!

Introduction and Synopsis –

Just as the cold winds were getting too harsh for Hedgehog, Father Christmas send in his gift -  a warm, soft, bobblehat. His prickles render the hat useless for him so the generous hedgehog gifts it to his friend rabbit, who in turn, gifts it to his friend, beaver and finally in this manner, the hat ends up with fox. The fox dons the hat and goes out searching for supper when he finds the poor little hedgehog buried under a pile of snow, rendered numb with cold. Fox puts the hedgehog in the wooly hat and takes him to his friends. With hedgehog warm and snug in the hat that had now doubled up as a blanket for him, he falls fast asleep even before the others had a chance to tell him that it was the hat that was originally his’!

Why did my caterpillar and I like this book?

ME -
It’s an adorable story. There are lots of reasons you should read the story. It’s a perfect Christmas story, to be read aloud on a cold, snowy night, or even otherwise. There is sharing, giving and kindness, all of which perfectly encapsulate the spirit of Christmas. The book is richly illustrated, beautifully detailed and the touchy-feely soft hat makes its appearance on each page. It introduces to kids the idea of hibernation (“What’s a hedgehog doing out at Christmas time? He should be fast asleep!”).  A very interesting aspect of the story is the relationship shown between the rabbit and badger, and badger and the fox; these animals don't generally get along well with each other. It is seen in the surprise shown by the fox when he is gifted the hat - ‘Time to be nice to each other!’ smiles the badger to the puzzled fox. It is charming!

MY TINY CATERPILLAR -

It is a touchy-feely book so that is the first thing that caught her attention. The Little Hedgehog with his baby features and generous heart charmed her heart. When she saw the fox wrapping up the hedgehog in the hat that originally was meant for him, she gave a warm, satisfied smile. Kids really love to see kindness all around! :-) That, I guess, is what clicked with us in this story.

Online link -

We found this you tube link to the beautiful story. 

The cocoon rates it -

4/5

We cannot think of a reason to not like the book. There are many endearing books written on the spirit of Christmas, but this one stole our hearts. The book is a little wordy, yes – but the author has spaced it out enough in the pages. We would highly recommend the book especially in the 3-5 years age group.

Jingle Bells

Author                                  : Nick Butterworth
Illustrations by                     : Nick Butterworth
Age range recommended     :  3+
Theme                                   : Christmas, friendship, smart thinking

Opening lines –
CHRISTMAS TIME. 

A happy time, or so it should be. Why then, on this Christmas Eve, did two small mice look so unhappy?

"It's That Cat," grumbled Lottie to her brother Jack. "He always spoils things."

Ah, yes. That Cat.

It should have been wonderful for the mice, living in  a cart shed on a farm. There were games to play, places to explore and, usually, plenty to eat.

There was only one problem... That Cat.

Introduction and Synopsis –
Lottie and Jack put up Christmas stockings on Christmas Eve and wait for Father Christmas to bring them goodies but That Cat wrecks their plan. It turns out to be a sad Christmas for the brothers but they decide to really do something about it. They decide to talk to Ton-Chee, a rat, a knowledgable character. With the help of Ton-Chee and a little something left back in the snow from Santa's sleigh, they manage to put an end to the distress caused by That Cat. The book ends with the mice happily saying, "It may not have been a very merry Christmas, but it does look like being a happy new year!"

Why did my caterpillar and I like this book?
ME -  
It is a cute Christmas book. It spreads Christmas cheer and the illustrations are adorable. I liked the idea that Tom Chee gives to the mice to teach a lesson to That Cat - it's not mean at all, in fact, its humorous.

MY TINY CATERPILLAR -
The book was a little lengthy for her and it looked like she was waiting for quite a while to know what happened to the mice! :-) But on the other hand, though the book is lengthy, the writing is very simple - a quality that I found very good - I hardly had to explain anything to A. She found the book funny and was happy.

Online link -
We couldn't find any online link to this story.
Nick Butterworth is a British illustrator and author and is most famous for his 'Percy the Park Keeper' series of stories. We would like to read them someday. Our hunt is on for the books in the local library.

The cocoon rates it -

3/5

This book is a nice read, a regular, simple, feel-good story.