This is an excellent children’s picture book for Christmas. The story is beautiful, written by Jay Dee in simple but elegant and evocative prose, and the illustrations by Darren Geers are beautiful, colourful without being garish and with a truly lovely light quality. The book has also been beautifully produced, nicely printed and well laid out.
The illustrations create a large part of the book’s charm. The artist has imbued the drawings of Elfie, the other elves and Santa Clause with a great deal of expression. They beam off the page.
But the story itself does something wonderful; it merges the story of Santa Clause with the birth of Jesus, and also makes a clear statement on the kind of dedication required to achieve perfection. Santa Clause and his role as gift bringer to the good, and Christmas as the story of Jesus Christ’s birth can easily seem like two unrelated ideas of Christmas, but this story shows that it doesn’t have to be like that.
I love this story so much that I will read it to my family on Christmas day—and my child is twenty one!
I give this book 5 stars, and nominate it for an AIA Seal of Excellence as an excellent example of a children’s picture book.
Buy now for Christmas
