Christmas Wonder by Vicki Conley
Illus. by Cheryl Orsini. Affirm Press, 2019. ISBN: 9781925870770.
32pp., hbk.
Christmas time,
Seven sleeps.
Busy house
Tummy leaps.
In a series of eight-word rhymes, the magic and excitement of the
countdown to Christmas in Australia is captured in this charmingly
illustrated book. Embracing all the familiar things that families do
at this time, combining the traditional with the contemporary, young
readers will enjoy spotting their family in the illustrations while
talking about what's happening and sharing their stories of what
they do that is similar as well as what they do that is a bit
different. It's a great opportunity to broaden understanding and
share diverse perspectives - there are few who don't celebrate
Christmas, even if they do it differently.
In a storyworld with many Christmas-themed books to choose from, it
is refreshing to have a new story that has some depth, reflects who
its readers are and what they do while not making them caricatures
of all that is "ocker", and opens up the opportunity to explore and
explain.
Barbara Braxton