Merry Christmas, Punnyboppers! Four new Christmas books for you this time around. We read all of them at the library. Hope you find a great new book to read with your little ones.

Grumpy Badger's Christmas

Written by Paul Bright, illustrated by Jane Chapman | $12, Amazon.com

All Badger wants to do is go to sleep; he doesn't care about Christmas. It's his time to go underground and sleep all winter through. When his animal friends come knocking on his door trying to bring presents and asking to borrow his ladder to decorate a Christmas tree, he angrily sends them away. "Piffle!" he shouts. "I don't like presents and I don't like Christmas!"

But then one of them shows up to ask for his help because Mole is stuck on top of the tree he was trying to decorate. Again, Grumpy Badger wants to be left alone, so he closes the door and goes back to sleep... but he has a terrible dream that Mole is about to fall out of the tree. When he startles himself awake, he realizes what a bad friend he has been, rushes out to save Mole, and apologizes to everyone for being so grumpy.

To make it up to them, he throws a wonderful Christmas party, which he intends to make an annual tradition.

This story's only possible flaw is that badgers don't actually hibernate. They're less active in cold weather, and sometimes stay underground for long stretches, but they don't sleep through the winter as it suggests in this book. If you forgive this bit of artistic license, and the fact that the text can be a little hard to read against the background on some pages, it's a winner all the way. A solid message, an entertaining story, and nicely expressive acrylic paintings.

Merry Christmas, Splat

by Rob Scotton | $12, Amazon.com

In this latest book of the Splat the Cat series, Splat writes out his Christmas list for Santa: he wants a really big present. That's all he specifies. But his little sister gives him a "look" and asks, "Are you sure you've been good?" Of course he's sure! Well, almost sure. Just to be extra sure, he volunteers to help with all the Christmas preparations. He washes the dishes (which were already clean), redecorates the tree (which has already been decorated), and other such "helpful" tasks.

Then he tries to go to sleep, but is filled with anxiety - maybe he should stay up and tell Santa what a good cat he's been, just in case Santa doesn't realize it.

In the end, he awakes to find no presents under the tree, and he fears he wasn't good enough after all - but his family pops out from behind the tree with a big box just for Splat. He says it's the best Christmas present ever, though we never see what it is; that’s left up to kids' imagination.

The book is recommended for 4- to 8-year-olds, but my 2 1/2-year-old loved it, and so did I.

Olivia Helps With Christmas

by Ian Falconer | $11, Amazon.com

Surely you know of the little pig with the big personality, right? In this book, Olivia (of TV fame) sets out to help with the Christmas preparations, but mostly gets herself into trouble, similar to Splat (reviewed above). My daughter made me keep turning back to the page where Olivia gets all tangled up in the string of lights.

Olivia keeps peeking up the chimney to see if Santa is arriving yet, and gets soot on her snout. On Christmas morning, she and her brothers find some great presents (oh, yeah, and some clothes) under the tree.

The focus of the book is on the preparations and the waiting, rather than on Christmas day itself. Could have used another funny Olivia antic or two, and I really could have done without the illustration of her baby brother throwing up blueberry pie all over the floor, but aside from that, Olivia fans will love this one.

Suzy Goose and the Christmas Star

by Petr Horacek | $11, Amazon.com

Suzy Goose and her friends are finished decorating their Christmas tree, and it looks perfect, except one thing: It is missing a star for the top. Suzy sees a perfect star in the sky, so she sets out to get it. She reaches as high as she can, but can't reach it. She tries jumping to it and climbing to it and walking to it, but she only succeeds in getting herself lost and tired.

Finally, her friends lead her back home, where they all see that although she was not able to pluck the star out of the sky, it's now shining right above the Christmas tree.

I enjoyed this book and the mixed-media illustrations. For me, though, the ending wasn't as satisfying as it could have been.

Jenna Glatzer is the author of 19 books, including authorized biographies of Celine Dion and Marilyn Monroe. Read about what she’s up to at www.jennaglatzer.com. - Jenna Glatzer

Chouette Publishing released a new series of Caillou books based on the Caillou television show earlier this year, offering the same simple drawings, uncluttered conversations, and practical lessons as the show in four different formats - lift-the-flap books (My First Vacation), a single-volume collection of stories (My Book of Great Adventures), a boxed set of five small hardcover stories, and a puzzle/board book (ABC Train).

Although these books are intended primarily for preschoolers, ABC Train would be fun for younger toddlers learning their ABCs and how to to assemble simple puzzles. The book is an extra thick board book with pop-out puzzle pieces that fit in alphabetical order, with an animal associated with each letter (jaguar for J, koala for K). The pieces fit together easily and store securely in the book. It's labeled as not intended for kids under three (maybe the choking hazard would come from puzzle pieces falling apart when chewed?) so use your discretion and parenting judgment here.

My First Vacation is a great book for helping kids grapple with the concept of taking a plane ride. As long as your child doesn't expect to get to meet the pilot and sit in the cockpit, they'll get something worthwhile from this book in advance of, or in the act of, taking a trip.

The Caillou Boxed Set, My Book of Great Adventures, and My First Vacation are clearly aimed towards the preschool set. These books teach a small life lesson in each story. Children who enjoy the quiet, gentle Caillou show will enjoy these books!

- Jeremiah

Hello, ZRecs readers! I’m a long-time fan of the ZRecs Network, and recently asked if I could come on board as a reviewer. Some crazy person (Jeremiah) said okay. So here I am!

I live with one opinionated two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Sarina. She and I both love books and music, so that’s mostly what we’ll be reviewing around here. Sarina is a fan of volcanoes, songs about the rain, hiding from Wiffy the Skunk Ghost, and broccoli (I know, she’s weird). I am the author of a whole bunch of books on topics ranging from Marilyn Monroe to bullying, which you can read about on my website if you are so inclined.

I'll be rotating my review roundups among various types of kids' media every two weeks. This time, books. Next time, music!

[And no, that tattoo does not belong to Jenna, despite her extreme love of books. It belongs to her. - Ed.]

Thanks for caring about what we think. Here are our four picks this week, ranked from our very favorite downward.

The Delicious Bug

By Janet Perlman

This is the book we grabbed out of our review box first, and it turns out that there was a good reason we were so attracted to it: It’s full of awesome.

This story is about two chameleon friends who catch the same bug at the same moment. They first argue politely about which one should let go, but soon politeness turns to anger and name-calling. (“Shlobberface!” “Shkunk cabbage!” They do still have a bug stuck on their tongues, hence the speech impediment). They irritate all the animals around them, and almost wind up as two crocodiles’ lunch before they see the error of their ways and realize that their friendship is more important than a bug - no matter how delicious.

The Delicious Bug is satisfying on so many levels. There are worthwhile lessons here about sharing, friendship, helping those less fortunate, and selflessness, and the book takes the message one step further when the chameleons make amends to the animals they annoyed. All this in just 32 pages! But what makes it even better is that it’s really funny, both in text and illustrations. Turns out it’s an adaptation of the author’s award-winning short animated film "Dinner For Two." (I watched a preview. The book is better.)

If you’re the kind of parent who likes to act out books, complete with funny voices and sound effects, this one will be a treat. Sarina now frequently asks for “my bug book.” You can get a Delicious Bug of your own on Amazon at a nice discount.

Flip, Flap, Fly! A Book for Babies Everywhere

By Phyllis Root, illustrated by David Walker

We love the sing-song rhymes in Flip, Flap, Fly! Each four-page layout is a peek into a mama and baby pair learning a new skill. A baby otter is learning to slide, a baby fish is learning to swim, a baby bird is learning to fly. And the added bonus is that the red-headed baby boy is learning to kiss - leading to the line “So the mama and the baby child kiss like this...” Seriously, thank you, author Phyllis. You wrote that just so I’d have an excuse to get Sarina to kiss me, didn’t you?

The colors are warm, and the illustrations are simple and friendly. A sweet pick for any mom and baby or young toddler. You can pick it up on Amazon for 25% off the cover price.

Spoon

Written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, illustrated by Scott Magoon

Spoon is a book about Spoon, who is… well, a little boy spoon. He lives with his extended family, which includes ladles, measuring spoons, wooden spoons, and so on. (Poor Spork looks awfully uncomfortable in the family photo.) His great-grandmother was the famous one who ran away with the dish in the Mother Goose tale.

In this story, Spoon feels a bit jealous about his friends’ ability to do cool stuff - like how Knife can cut, and Fork can go just about anywhere. And people always think the Chopsticks are so exotic. But, his mother reminds him, his friends are probably thinking about how cool it would be to do the things he can do - like dive headfirst into a bowl of ice cream or relax in a hot cup of tea.

It’s a fun twist on the “there’s something special about each of us” theme, and there are funny details in the illustrations that will make you want to read it again to make sure you’ve caught them all.

Seymour and Henry

By Kim Lewis

I’m not sure I get the moral of Seymour and Henry. It’s a book about two ducklings who don’t want to stop playing when their mother tells them it’s time to come home. Instead, they run away from her. They hop on a log, scamper around a rock, tumble down a hill, and hide in a flowerpot and under some leaves, and they wait for their mom to find them. They wait and wait, and it starts raining.

This frightens them enough to run back to find their mother... who is still just sitting in the same spot, unfazed. She never bothered to go looking for them. When they find her, she doesn’t admonish them for running away, she doesn’t give them any warnings, she doesn’t express that she’s so glad they’re okay.

In short, she should be arrested for child neglect. Well, aside from the fact that they’re DUCKS and they live in water and rain should not be a problem.

So, she just tells them to “hop on for a ride,” and she flies them into a... building? A treehouse? I don’t know, but they’re in some kind of structure with a blanket at the end.

The illustrations are sweet and gentle - the ducks are drawn as stuffed animals with clothes on, which is a little strange in a pond... but nice drawings nonetheless.

It’s a cute enough book for very young ones, but I think it would require some good explanations for those 2 and up. You can find Seymour and Henry on Amazon, too. - Jenna Glatzer

Strange and mesmerizing for toddlers, just plain funny for us. A bizarre introduction to a wonderful song. [Via BoingBoing]



Who knows, maybe your child will learn to do this:



- Jeremiah

We have about 20 board books for our nearly one year old son, and a few have clearly become preferred. The one book that has gone above and beyond preferred, and into the realm of favorite, is a simple and short book called Choo Choo, with text and illustrations by Petr Horacek.

The illustrations are very engaging, and the text is sing-songy yet simple. What sets this book apart for my son is that he likes the shaped pages and how they work with the illustrations. He gets visibly excited at the page with the bright orange bridge, and sometimes squeals out loud when he turns the page to see the dark tunnel (and neat cut-out tunnel opening) on the next page. This is the only book he ever squeals excitedly at, so I know it is his favorite.

Board books make wonderful presents - and I think most babies would, like my son, be really engaged by this book! - Leigh

Pierre Kartner, or "Vader Abraham" as he was known throughout much of the world in the 1970s and '80s, was a popular 1960s Europop musician who found a second, and much longer-lasting career as a fake Hasidic Jew who sang songs about the Smurfs. Yes, you heard me right. It all came together fairly suddenly in 1977, but Kartner knew enough not to stop a train. Here he is at the peak of his powers.


Vader Abraham began his post-pop career in the early 1970s writing alternately misty-eyed and goofy cafe songs that were popular with a Dutch mainstream culture looking for a way out of both 1960s radicalism and American-oriented rock. The name of his character was tied to his first single, a version of the traditional song "Father Abraham Had Seven Sons." Things went reasonably well for him for several years, but in 1977 he was asked to write a song for an animated move then in development called The Smurfs. After the single's first pressing of 1,000 copies sold out in a day, 900,000 more flew off the shelves, and the hit was rerecorded in German, French, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, and Japanese, with Kartner himself singing every version.

Vader Abraham became an international sensation, and released much of his music in English. He started his act with a fake beard, but then grew a real one, and has sported it ever since, and wholeheartedly and permanently adopted his role with a level of commitment and comfort Paul Reubens or other children's entertainers could never muster long-term.



Later decades saw surreal celebrations of his music, riding the wave of his immense popularity in the 1970s and the impact his music had on two generations of the Dutch: The middle-aged cafe-goers of the 1970s and the children they raised on his Smurfenland songs. Small countries that only occasionally export their pop culture to wild acclaim generally remain fond of them long after their time has passed, and it didn't hurt that there is something inescapably avuncular and familiar about a man who sings songs which often feature "la" as the most frequently used word.


Vader Abraham's connection with the Smurfs came to an end in the 1990s when he was left out of the revamped television series. He was, however, tapped to write the opening theme for another truly international cartoon, The Moomin, in one of its main animated incarnations. (I wrote recently about the Moomin in another Punnybop post.) If you doubted that Abraham's singsong was a signature style, listen to this and you'll realize you've just become an expert on the musical stylings of Pierre Kartner's second career.

- Jeremiah