Britta Teckentrup has a taken the classic Yuletide song, The Twelve Days of Christmas, and written and illustrated a peek-through picture book for the younger crowd.
Teckentrup's elves have engaging, welcoming faces, sure to draw a child in. The cover's snowflakes and holly are in silver foil, giving the book a definite festive feel and look.
Most of us know the song, with the number of gifts increasing on each day. Teckentrup starts with a small cutout for day one of just the partridge in the pear tree. My little guy was immediately drawn to the cut out on the right hand page, wanting to know what was on the next page, and the next and the next. With each turned page, the cut-out increases in size to accommodate the growing number of gifts. (Trivia fact - if you received all the gifts you would have 364!)
There are many ways to enjoy this book - we sang the song, pointed to the right gifts/pictures and did some counting as well. By the time we reached the last page, it was full of presents. For these eyes, they were a bit small (necessary to fit them all in) but little guy has sharp eyes and enjoyed pointing out the details to me. The illustrations are quite detailed and have a vintage feel to them.
The left hand page is paler than the more vibrant cut-out page - which certainly directs your attention the main area. But, I thought that perhaps providing more to look at on the opposite page - elves to find or elves engaged in some activity - would have provided even more reading/viewing opportunities.
This book is geared for preschool to grade 2 - perfect for little guy and Gramma. We quite enjoyed Britta Teckentrup's interpretation of this classic holiday favorite. The book been added to their holiday bookshelf and will be part of future Christmastime traditions.
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