Book Review: The King's Christmas List

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Every once in a while I take a peek over at Booksneeze to see if any good books are available for review. They very rarely have any "green" books but I thought with the holidays coming this children's Christmas book looked kind of cute and inspirational. We've had it for several weeks now and other than the first day, my daughter really hasn't wanted to read it again. It could be because she is a little too young and, while she does have a children's bible that we read, we do not really discuss religion in our home.

The King's Christmas List is about a little girl and her dog who are invited to a birthday party for "The King" (God). She starts out with a gift for him and along the way she stops to help several people by giving away the gift and other things that are important to her. In the end she meets "The King" and is told what true Christmas spirit is all about. Most of the story is kind of "cute" and then the final message is delivered in a very preachy, long-winded fashion. The kind of thing that young kids tend to tune out, I know mine did. One of the most redeeming qualities this book has is the beautiful illustrations by Bonnie Leick.

While I can appreciate the message that the book is trying to teach, I really wanted to like this book, I had a hard time getting past the page of advertising at the back of the book. It seemed to take away from the story by creating the feeling that the whole story was an infomercial for World Vision and blood:water mission. I agree that children need to be taught to help others, and that these organizations are doing that, but I don't think that a long-winded sermon followed by a whole page ad in the back of a children's book is going to accomplish that.

Unfortunately I don't think this book will be making the cut when it comes time to weed out our library.


Disclosure: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own