A spectaucular pop-up book with real gifts and letters from Santa’s elf, Harvey

Review: This is a magical pop-up book with special gifts and letters and a heart-warming Christmas story.

Father Christmas has been feeling poorly and Harvey the Christmas Elf is worried that he won't be well enough for the important sleigh ride on Christmas Eve. Luckily, a little girl called Holly is on hand to write lots of cheering letters and to help deliver the presents on the big night. Excited children can open Harvey's letters for themselves and discover his gifts to Holly - a Christmas card, festive recipe book, and stencil set - before being dazzled by the magical pop-up of Santa's house. HAPPILY! Yes, Father Christmas feels much better, and of course, there's all the gifts to be given to the Elves, to look forward to, and a nice hot cuppa and a bite to eat no doubt.

This book is a sequel to  "Dear Father Christmas". Apart from the story and illustrations, they both have a lot of little envelopes inside them, which contain extras. One envelope has some stencils! Harvey thinks Holly might like to use them to make her own Christmas decorations. The text also has some special Christmas recipes! Who'd have thought, cooking tips from an Elf, it really doesn't get much better than that, does it?

Children will really enjoy these being read to them. The illustrations are beautiful and look so enchanting. They complement the text very well. It's always nice to have a bit of glitter and sparkle too. This last spread of the book has a bit of the wow factor when you open it up. Children enjoy the idea of being able to physically look around a scene in an illustration, and with this pop-up, you really can do it! I read this book with my year 2 class, in the last week of the autumn term. They fell in love with the text and wanted the book re-read again and again. In school this text can be used as a stimulus for the children's own writing as well as enjoyed for its own sake.

2010-01-02