Clementine's Christmas by Annie White

Three wonderful romps with Clementine walking, having a bath, and finding a treasure have been published for younger audiences to much hilarity (Clementine’s walk, Clementine’s bath and Clementine’s treasure).  A very large, energetic dog, Clementine loves her family and wants to help with their Christmas preparations. We meet the family putting up the Christmas tree, decorating the room and sitting the presents, already wrapped and named, under the tree. Granny sits in the background knitting while Clementine looks on. As the family takes the children upstairs to bed, Granny finds that she has lost her purple wool. Clementine helps Granny find it, wrapping everything with purple wool. Granny finds her ball of wool, and in picking it up joyously pulls over the tree and all the presents. Together they put back the tree and the decorations, while Granny puts the names onto the presents. All good fun, readers will love laughing along with the mayhem on each of the pages, predicting the rhyming word at the end of each four line stanza. 

Kids will love predicting what might happen on Christmas Day after Granny and Clementine have put things back together again, and laugh with the family as each receives the present with their name on it. 

The verses are accompanied by lovingly drawn illustrators, showing a close family getting ready for Christmas, the day when many families spend time together. 

Young reader will love spotting all the accoutrements of Christmas shown in the illustrations. 

Clementine will win lots of hearts, and the inappropriate presents received by family members will cause much mirth.

And watch out for the pet hen. 

Themes: Dogs, Animals, Christmas, Family, Pets, Grandparents, Humour.

Fran Knight