Author: Xist Publishing
Publisher: Xist Publishing
Rating: WARTY!
First of December - time for a Xmas book! Unfortunately I can't recommend this one except in that it's free in Nook or Kindle form (as of this review's posting!)!
Normally I'm pretty liberal with reviews for children's books. I rarely find them completely lacking because my review standards are adjusted to a wider focus there. This one, however, apart from it's price, lacks anything to recommend it over a score or more of other such books.
If it had a little extra I could have seen it, but this is simply the twelve days of Christmas with nothing added: no information about where the song came from or what it means. Nothing but the simple words and some pictures. This may be fine for your kids. It's your choice after all. I would have liked a little something more.
If they could have only the words right that would have been something, but we still get the "four calling birds" and the "five golden rings, I'm sorry to report. And what's wrong with that you ask? Well, it's really supposed to be "four colly birds" and "five gold rings". The two phrases mean something rather different from the way they're typically rendered in the USA.
A colly bird is a blackbird. Those are four blackbirds. A golden ring doesn't necessarily imply that he ring is made of gold. Quite the contrary - 'golden' suggests merely that it bears the color of gold or a reasonable facsimile thereto! Is this what we want to foist upon our children? Cheap imitation?! Humbug, I tell you!
I can't recommend this over any other such children's book. Find the one which suits you best. There are twenties of them after all. See what I did? I changed the word! It doesn't sound right when I don't say "scores" does it?!
