Christmas Is Coming: Traditions from Around the World - Monika Utnik-Strugała - ★★★.½

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AUTHOR: Monika Utnik-Strugała
ILLUSTRATOR: Ewa Poklewska-Koziełło
GENRE: Children's Nonfiction, Christmas
PUBLICATION DATE: September 14, 2021
RATING: 3.5 stars.


I have a hard time resisting any book that says “Christmas” in its title. What with this book’s bright red cover pic, it was doubly difficult to resist it. But it didn’t exactly work out the way I had thought.

The book contains a treasure trove of Christmas-related information, be it with respect to special days around Christmas, traditions set in the festive season, customs associated with Christmas, and so on. It is very informative. Even many adults wouldn’t know many of the details covered in the book.

However, the book is almost encyclopaedic in its approach. I had assumed this to be a simple picture book with some information on how Christmas is celebrated across various countries. (My mistake entirely. The blurb didn’t promise a picture book. I think I jumped the gun because of the lovely illustrations on the cover.) Unfortunately, it is quite text-intensive and as such, it might lose out on the younger readers. Rather than presenting the information in smaller paragraphs and a bigger font, the text looks crammed with paragraphs and paragraphs of content. I would have loved to see a more informal approach as children tend to enjoy those better. Especially if this is marketed as children’s nonfiction, then the content has to be more appealing to them. With such lengthy writing, I feel kids will mainly look at the illustrations and not read the information alongside. The purpose of the book is lost then.

What helps the book to a certain extent is the marvellous illustrations. They are absolutely charming and support the content perfectly. But illustrations alone don’t make for a good book; sad, but true.

For those children aged 9+ who love reading trivia, this book will be a wonderful gift.

Thank you, NetGalley and North South Books Inc., for the Advanced Review Copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

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