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Tis the Season: A Lift-the-Flap Advent Calendar Full of Christmas Poems

Tis the Season: A Lift-the-Flap Advent Calendar Full of Christmas Poems

4.3

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Author(s)

Richard Jones

Genre(s)

Age Range

Release Date

September 03, 2024

ISBN

979-8887770949

Buy This Book

A spectacular Advent calendar book filled with festive poems, hidden surprises, and a magical fold-out display!

Count down to Christmas with well-loved poets, including Ogden Nash, Nikki Giovanni, John Agard, and Christina Rossetti and joyful artwork from Richard Jones. Peek inside the windows of the house to find a family wrapping presents, look behind a holly bush to find a little mouse, and see what’s happening in the town behind a glittering Christmas tree!

This classic collection has a flap to lift alongside a special poem for every day of Advent and a fold-out accordion displaying a beautiful snowy landscape. With sturdy flaps, sparkling foil, and a ribbon-tie closure, this beautiful gift book is designed to be shared together—filling your family with festive cheer, year after year.

Editor review

1 review

Innovative Poem Advent Calendar

September 02, 2024

Overall rating

4.3

Plot

4.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

5.0

This is a unique collection of poems , since it is also a lift-the-flap Advent calendar. Each page has two beautifully illustrated poems, each accompanied by a numbered flap. Sometimes these flaps are harder to find, disguised in trees or rushes, and sometimes they are logs or rocks. Most of the flaps open to reveal animals, given that many of the pages are outdoor scenes, but some uncover people or cars. The last flap, for Christmas Eve, has a large Christmas tree. The end of the book also revealed the reason for the ribbon that ties the book together; all of the pages fold out, and on the back there are larger versions of all of the items hidden by the flaps! I suppose if one had a very long mantle or a cabinet, this books could be unfolded and displayed for the Advent season.

Good Points

The illustrations have a soft, chalk pastel feel to them that seems very modern and fresh. This might be in part due to the lavish use of a pale teal instead of an icy blue shade that older Christmas titles tend to employ. The people in the book a nicely diverse, although there are many more animals than people.

The selection of poems is generally good, and highlights include Russell Hoban's (Bedtime for Frances) Winter Ducks, Ogden Nash's Winter Morning, and J. Patrick Lewis' The Red Fox. There is a good sprinkling of traditional holiday verses like Jingle Bells as well. I wish there had been some more modern inclusions, although I know getting permission for those might be harder. Some of the poems will take some explaining, due to some unusual vocabulary. I did enjoy the fact that there were poems from a variety of cultures, and that permission was sought for the usage.

This is certainly an unusual book that could become an advent staple, so I would recommend opening all of the flaps before small fingers attempt them! It's a good idea to branch out from the omnipresent A Child's Garden of Verses by Stevenson when offering poetry to young readers, so Tis the Season is an interesting, holiday themed choice to have, along with Kooser, Wanek, and Jones' Marshmallow Clouds, Yolen's In and Out the Window, and Janeczko and Sweet's Firefly July: A Year of Very Short Poems.