A miniature Christmas ed. by Beattie Alvarez

Christmas Press, 2018. ISBN 9780648194514
Recommended. A miniature Christmas is an anthology of stories all written by both emerging and established Australian story tellers, based on the theme of 'miniature'. There are 12 wonderful stories that feature characters such as elves, goblins, fairies and even genies.
The stories are all equally fun and interesting; with a Christmas twist of many different forms. There is a modern story about an app that comes to life, a short story with magical disappearing green men typing on a computer and even a story about a lifelong miniaturist passing on his skilled trade to his granddaughter. All of the stories are steeped in Christmas spirit and will delight readers from approximately 4 years of age.
I loved that each story had its own illustrator, who presented the story in their own way using a variety of mediums such as pencil drawing, painting, models and cartoon-like characters. This added to the book as I could compare and contrast the different stories and illustrators, picking and choosing my favourite parts of each. The final pages of the book also give a wonderful little behind the scenes story about each author and illustration - a finishing touch that I personally enjoyed.
My 4 year old enjoyed the shorter stories such as 'The Vaswe Elves' and 'Quack', whilst Master 8 was able to read all the stories at his leisure. There were a few difficult words, but he enjoyed this Christmas themed book none the less.
This is an interesting and engaging compilation of books put together by Beattie Alvarez, which would be well placed on any library or book shelf at Christmas time. Beautiful illustrations and a great range of writing styles, all from Australians!
We give it 4 out of 5.
Lauren Fountain