Greg Pizzoli’s The 12 Days of Christmas – Daynah’s Review
Greg Pizolli’s The 12 Days of Christmas
Everyone knows and loves the familiar “12 Days of Christmas” song and to experience it again with Theodor Seuss Geisel Award-Winning author, Greg Pizzoli’s illustration is such a joy that would get you instantly in the Christmas spirit. The book starts out innocently just like a song.. on the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, a partridge in a pear tree. Elephant’s friend hands her a gift and she loves the cute little bird in the tree. The next day comes and her friend drops off another gift.. two turtle doves. And now you can see the worried look on her dad’s face as to what he should expect next! You know how the story goes and the illustrations are hilarious.
Overview and Daughters’ Reactions
I absolutely love this book and the illustrations are marvelous, just as I would expect from Greg. As I read the book to my daughters, I could not help but to start singing the words, which made them get really into the book. We talked about all the characters as we flipped through the pages and we tried to find each additional gift that was added. As a mother, this is a great book to help start conversations with your little one. My five-year-old loved the story and the illustrations but she did not like the sad face Elephant’s dad was making throughout the book. But there was a very happy ending which she enjoyed.
If you are familiar with Greg Pizzoli’s books, you can find a lot of his characters from previous books in this one. Something that I thought made this book extra special was the time and care they took making the beautiful book jacket. The story title is decorated in a shiny silver and the front illustration gives you an idea of what characters to expect in the book. On the back of the book jacket is a giant tree with all the characters decorated as ornaments. If you remove the book jacket and look at the front and back covers, the illustration looks like it is part of a Christmas sweater where all the words and pictures are somewhat pixellated. I love that idea! Each page in this picture book is bright and colorful and brings out the Christmas spirit in all of us. It would make the perfect gift for the little reader in your life.
