Review: Cut ,Pasted, Copied, and Reworked into a Mess
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 11 21, 2012
As the author has stated that she has rectified the main issue I had with the last version of this book, (proper credit was not given to Clement C. Moore writer of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and Robert L. May writer of "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer", I thought I would update my review.When I read a children's book, I look at originality, theme (and did they keep to it), lesson (would a child learn the intended lesson), for pre elementary I look for large bold illustrations. Easy to read and recite language.As for originality, this has none.  Most of the "story" has been "borrowed" from "Twas the Night Before Christmas", and "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer". The author herself said in a comment "Of course, I didn't want to confuse children who might have read other stories. I simply retold the story in my own words, inventing a lot of new "facts" I knew children would love.".  I have seen several books where stories have been "retold", but then the publisher or illustrator would usually bring in something new and unique.Which brings me to theme.  As far as the writing is concerned she stays on theme for the story, however the illustrations are of such variety of styles that it does not create a cohesive feel.  Some are elaborate, some are simple, some color, some black and white, some outlined, some silhouette.  Even when it came to the reindeer she did not select illustrations of a particular style or color pallette.  Cupid truly threw me as the illustration is an outline filled in with a pink sparkly pattern with no discernible features.  The author had commented  "I found these lovely old pictures and wanted to use them to tell the Santa stories all in one place.".  That sentiment would have been fine if she was writing a book on various art on a Christmas theme and organized into styles.  However, I feel if she is illustrating a story, then the art should be similar in nature.The cover of the book says this is interactive.  The interactive portions consist of a question at the bottom of some of the pages. Questions such as "Where are the chimneys?", "Where is the snow?".  There are also two pages that list the reindeer names, no questions just names.  One is titled Special Reindeer" and the other "Position of Reindeer", both pages' links lead back to the individual reindeer pages.  If you read the book by page forward you see these pages anyway.As this book is part of a series, it leads to other problems as well.  At one point the author says,"Once Santa was in the North Pole and he had his magical abilities, he created his elves and they were busy making the toys." If you have read one of the previous books this is fine.  However, she makes a statement of Santa getting his abilities, but does not tell how he gets them.  Which means this is not actually a stand alone book as some pertinent information can only be found in other books of this series.  This book also ends in the statement "This is the history of Santa's Reindeer.  Let's see how Santa looks today and how all these traditions are celebrated each year." , which means instead of a proper ending to a story the reader is left with a sales pitch.I realize that not everyone would take issue with the thing I have.  If the above items won't bother you buy the book.  However, if you want something original and consistent, then give it a miss.