Parent's Guide to Story Reading Sanity - Christmas Edition
Written by Joan Holub Illustrated by Scott Magoon
Recommended ages: 4-10 (I think boys are going to really like this one)
It’s a obviously a play on “The Night Before Christmas,” but it’s defi-knight-ly a different kind of book: Santa is the bad guy and his reindeer are actually dragons. I know. Will it fly? I think it does.
Parents will enjoy this book because ... it’s clever. There are a ton of puns, some of which you can read, some are written as asides or integrated into the illustrations. Christmas carols are re-made into funny little quips that each knight misuses. Everything is a play on words. You won’t possibly be able to pick up on all the wise-cracks, but it will be fun wading through them. Parents just might want to add an accent to the knights to take it to the next level.
Children will enjoy this book because... the knights are completely silly! Instead of welcoming Santa into the castle for Christmas, they think Santa is an invader and try to keep him out! Everything they do is wrong, everything they understand is a mistake. Older kids will like to read the asides included in the illustrations. I mean, come on, hidden in the background is a castle gate that says, “King of the Iron Underwear.” What boy isn’t going to giggle about that.
It’s really all one big misunderstanding, and yet still ends well. Santa is very patient and does all he can to work with these valiant yet... short sighted knights. Lots of fun to be had reading “The Knights Before Christmas.”
This book gets 4 kids thumbs up, a couple of them with 2 thumbs up each, 1 Dad thumbs up, and 2 definite Songs & Stories with Heidi thumbs up!
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