Allen and the Nordic Gnome Book
At Christmas time I have 3 books that I read to my kids every Christmas Eve before bed and they have become tradition, Night Before Christmas, Elf On The Shelf and the classic Charlie Chimp’s Christmas. When I was asked to review, [amazon text=Allen and the Nordic Gnome&asin=B0722QHG7M] I thought maybe I would be able to add it to my list of Christmas Eve books but after reading it I’m not sure.
I read to my kids quite a bit and love to do voices and hold up the book so that they can see the pictures while I read and I found that it was difficult to read this book smoothly. There were sentences here and there that didn’t read properly to me. I am by no means an expert when it comes to all the rules of grammar but I do like to read and I know when something doesn’t seem quite right.
My other issue is that the story is a little disjointed. We hear about Allen and where he lives and that he has a dog and then on one page we learn about how his Grandfather use to tell him stories about nordic creatures which is kind of an important part of the story but it seems like it was just thrown in there. Next the dog is sick and then we meet the gnome and I won’t give away the end but don’t worry it is a happy ending. I just feel like the story is good but could have been laid out better to move more smoothly.
Also, I noticed something that I might be wrong about but figured I would mention. Allen goes into the woods when his dog is sick, too sick to move, and then in the next illustration when he meets the gnome the dog is on Allen’s lap, yet a page before there was no way the dog could move. Maybe I missed something.
Speaking of the illustrations they are rather nice but the one of the gnome is my favorite, I wish they had used that for the cover of the book. The are beautiful colored and very Christmasy (that’s a word right?).
I understand the concept of the book and I love that it ties in the gnome that you can purchase but it is not without its issues. As far as the age this should be geared to, I’m not sure. I read it to my 5 year old who kind of liked it but it was a little too wordy for him so I would think maybe a little older however my 12 year old wasn’t really interested.
I am by no means and expert when it comes to book reviews, I’m just giving my opinion. I’ve read a lot of children’s books (since I have 2 kids and volunteer at their schools from time to time) and this is honestly not my favorite but it is certainly better than some books I’ve read. It does help give a little more information about the nordic gnome but I would have liked to have read more about his story I think.
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