Everything I Need to Know About Christmas I Learned from a Little Golden Book

Reviewed by: Dorothy Hall-Riddle - N/A, Cumberland, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: May 12, 2015

Review

While many children might recognize some of the illustrations in this book, and the gist of the message is suitable for all ages, the appropriate audience is actually middle-aged women (as captured perfectly on the front cover) who are in need of a little refocusing when it comes to the Christmas holiday season. While there are not any obviously adult-only behaviors shown in the illustrations from the dozens of classic Golden Books, the general air is one geared towards grown-ups. The book focuses on the overly-commercialized, frenzied nature of the holidays; the cooking, cleaning, shopping, wrapping, dealing with crazy kids, stressing out, gaining weight, sickness, forgetting the true meaning of Christmas- antics many of us succumb to. The selected illustrations perfectly capture the intended messages and are a little like a trip down memory lane. Some of them might even be unfamiliar to all but a handful of readers as they were published as far back as the 1940s. Portions of this book could be used with children, and serve as a springboard to young readers to seek out and read classic holiday Golden books. The back cover includes a tag line "Little Golden Books: not just for children anymore!" It is confusing why this book is being marketed as a kids book (the link on the back cover is randomhouse.com/kids) when it is very clearly not intended for kids.

Overall Book Score: fair