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| ISBN-13: 978-0986360497 |
Beautifully illustrated hardcover book designed for children ages 3 – 8.
My thoughts: While this is a seasonal book featuring the Christmas season, it is more aptly a holiday book in which children are anticipating upcoming Christmas and Hanukkah holidays. The children (sea creatures) and their families are busily decorating for whichever of the two holidays their family celebrates. Both families celebrate with gift giving and hence an argument ensues between the sea creature children about the number of gifts they are going to receive.
Obviously, the lesson to be learned is that Christmas is not about getting lots of gifts and neither is Hanukkah. The bigger lesson opportunity is an opportunity to teach young children that families in different cultures celebrate in various ways and sometimes in similar methods.
While this is a really cute book, it does cause me some concern when they use phrases such as.... "but they knew in their hearts the best gift was the gift of God loving them and always taking care of them." This statement is not truly controversial, but as a Christian my belief is that God's greatest, best gift was His Son, Jesus as the Saviour of the world and our Redemer. So while God's love is the source of the birth of a saviour and of the oil that didn't run out for the Jews, the love of provision can not be compared to the wonderous love of redemption.
I still think the book is cute and has value as an entertaining teaching tool about the different celebrations of holidays in the Christian and Jewish communities.
A super little feature is the hidden cross and star on the pages. Gotta find them all!
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Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy from BookCrash to facilitate a review of my personal opinions. I received no compnesation. The giveaway copy is provided by the author and will be mailed directly to the winner.
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ReplyDelete1) How do you deal with children's "gimme" attitude about gifts at holidays? It is hard but we have each child hand out the gifts to other people so it is clear, everyone gets something but no one gets all of it.
ReplyDelete2) What brings you the most joy during the holiday season? I get joy just having my family with me at this time.
Why? I don't see them often and I treasure each hour we have.
1. We teach the kids that many are not as fortunate as them, and they should really appreciate what they have as well as what they receive.
ReplyDelete2. Believe it or not, I get the most joys when the holidays are over because there is so much pressure to get the right gifts, have a perfect meal, have the best decorations, etc. It's all so materialistic and tiring, so I am always the most happy when it is over.
I always remind my grand kids its not about receiving, its about giving. They are pretty good about it actually. I get most of my joy watching the little ones open their gifts and sitting around the table for a big Christmas feast with the whole family.
ReplyDeleteWe just taught them that gimme is not going to get you what you want. You will get what you need and special things as time goes on.
ReplyDeleteI love Christmas, it brings me joy by watching my Grandkids eyes as they tell me about how they helped decorate the tree and show me what they have been doing in school. It's a special time full of love and family and being thankful for Jesus.