Christmas Wonder

Vicki Conley

Cheryl Orsini

Affirm Press, 2019

32pp., hbk., RRP $A19.99

9781925870770

Christmas time,

Seven sleeps.

Busy house

Tummy leaps.

In a series of eight-word rhymes, the magic and excitement of the countdown to Christmas in Australia is captured in this charmingly illustrated book.  Embracing all the familiar things that families do at this time, combining the traditional with the contemporary, young readers will enjoy spotting their family in the illustrations while talking about what’s happening and sharing their stories of what they do that is similar as well as what they do that is a bit different. It’s a great opportunity to broaden understanding and share diverse perspectives – there are few who don’t celebrate Christmas, even if they do it differently. 

In a storyworld with many Christmas-themed books to choose from, it is refreshing to have a new story that has some depth, reflects who its readers are and what they do while not making them caricatures of all that is “ocker”, and opens up the opportunity to explore and explain.