Santa’s Lost Buttons by Kirsty-Louise Garbutt and Meneer Marcleo

 

2021

Santa keeps losing his buttons. The child is invited to find them in in the pictures. Some are harder to find that others.

Santa sets off on his journey and we see him visiting homes and enjoying mince pies and other treats.  And of course, losing his buttons.  He has a run in with the Queen’s corgis. He goes to France where we learn his French name.  In Spain we learn his Spanish name.  He goes to the USA and we see the Statue of Liberty. At last his journey is finished.  The elf places one more button in the under the sleeping boy’s bed.  And the reader is invited to find one more that is tucked away at the back of the book in a small envelope.     

The pictures are full of extra activity which provides more story and talking points for the adult and child reading the book together.     

The text is not too dense. It is printed in a simple font, with easy to read   ‘a’s and ‘g’s.  The book is sturdy: it is landscape and in hardback   

Refuge

 

2016, first published 2015  

pre-school, Key Stage 0, ages 1-4,  Booth Anne, Usher Sam, Christian, Nativity,   

This tells the story of Mary and Joseph fleeing to Egypt with Jesus after Joseph dreams they are in danger.  It is told from the point of view of the donkey that carries them.

The donkey’s voice is strong and he recognises the best in humans – the kindness of the innkeeper, the affection of the parents for the baby Jesus, the encouragement of the shepherds who watch them set off on their journey and the refuge the Egyptians offer.

As always with picture books for this age group there is some much extra story in the pictures. Facial expressions tell a lot: we see the tenderness in the face of Mary and Joseph, the wonder in the wise men, hope and fear as they travel, peace and relief as they arrive in Egypt, and kindness in the Egyptians.

The pictures are mainly grey scale.  Much of the action takes place at night. There are touches of yellow and the daytime pictures show a yellow sky. Yellow symbolises light and comfort in the penultimate double spread.

There is a mixture of pictures going across double spreads and isolated pictures integrated into the text on single pages.     

The text is sparse and the pictures dominate. It uses an adult font though it is large.

The story is fundamentally Christian though deals with a less familiar part of the nativity story. Even for those who do not hold the Christian faith this supplies a story important to many cultures.

 £1.00 from each copy sold goes to War Child. There is page at the end of the book, addressed to adults reading with the child, that explains about the work of War Child.  

There is also a QR code in the front of the book that takes you to a free audio version of the book.