Grandma McGarvey's Christmas product reviews

Grandma McGarvey's Christmas has all you need for a classic Christmas children's book: humour, story, rhyme and hilarious illustrations. What makes it extra special is its Kiwi flavour. It starts off in the style of T'was a Night Before Christmas but instead of Christmas Eve at a house in the middle of winter it's Grandma McGarvey heading off in the sunshine to a caravan park. She's all ready to tuck into her Christmas feast but has to dash out to get lights from the local store, where she finds out that Santa is too sick to come visit the kids at the campground Christmas party. Too busy to help, she heads back to the caravan and in typical Grandma McGarvey style, a series of mishaps leads her to crashing the party and saving the day.

If you haven't read a Grandma McGarvey book before, this is a great place to start. The language and story is fun for little kids to listen to and the illustrations are casual and unpolished-looking but full of detail in a way that matches the style of the story. Grandma McGarvey is a bit like a Mr Bean character in that she is never quite aware of the chaos she is causing all around her. Her faithful pet dog on the other hand is often embarrassed or shocked, and searching for his reaction on each page is part of the fun of reading Grandma McGarvey books.

Reading this book has become a Christmas family tradition in our home and I laugh every time I read it. So if you want something funny and easy to read aloud, with Kiwi Christmas imagery, loveable characters and an entertaining story, Grandma McGarvey's Christmas has it all.

Despite the fact that these appear to have come out when I was a young child, I have never read a Grandma McGarvey book before. Straight away I was taken in by the nice, bright and simple book cover. I will say, though, that going by the blurb on the back I thought that there would be a little bit more involved in regards to her actively saving the day as opposed to accidentally.

I love how well this book rhymes, and it flows along so nicely, that I had to keep reminding myself to slow down or I would have gotten through the story far to fast. My 5yo and 3yo loved it though, and straight away they were asking my to read it to them all over again. The illustrations in the book are simply delightful, nice and full of colour. There is so much going on in the illustrations on each page, that there is so much to see, yet it's not too much, doesn't feel over crowded.

All in all a great book, one that I am going to make a special book that will only come out at Christmas and we will read it each year.

I haven't read any of the Grandma McGarvey's books but having read this its off to the library to check out some other Grandma McGarvey Adventures as this book is just brilliant. Written by a New Zealand author this is a true kiwi Christmas as Grandma McGarvey heads to the beach to camp in her caravan, under a flowering pohutakawa tree. She has a few disasters that get her just where she needs to be for a perfect Kiwi Christmas. There are lots of iconic New Zealand at Christmas time illustrations so this just felt right at home reading this. So much so that this is a brilliant book to send to family who live abroad for a little bit of New Zealand at Christmas time.

Miss Four and Miss Six both like this book. The illustrations are very funny and colourful. It has us in the Christmas mood - though Miss Four now wants me to make a plum pudding flambe! This is written in rhyme and is quite funny. The illustrations really add to the story and there is a lot to look at which keeps my little misses engaged. The story is a decent length so keeps Miss Six interested and is a good one to challenge her reading. She has been trying to read this to the other little misses and it has sparked their interest in all the items we might be needing for our Christmas...

This is a great book and I would recommend it for preschool and early readers. With Christmas coming up it is a great book to buy as a gift or just as a book to get in the Christmas mood. It will definitely be a book that we get out year after year to read as it is a bit of a timeless classic.