Customer Reviews

A Christmas Carol

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I purchased this book for my daughter for Christmas. It is well written for children and illustrated by the same gentleman that illustrated Lemony Snicket's "Series of Unfortunate Events". It is a wonderful edition to anyone's library: young or old.

I bought this to read to my third graders. We were comparing and contrasting this story with The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. They loved the story. It helped to talk about Charles Dickens, the era that he wrote the story, and why he wrote it. The pictures are nice, too.

A Christmas Carol has been a holiday favorite since it was first published in 1843. The original novella has been abridged to picture-book length with new illustrations, and a fine picture book it makes!

The text is not only shorter but also more accessible while still true to Dickens. For example, "Scrooge, a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire" has been simplified to "He was a scraping old sinner, hard and sharp as flint." The plot, too, is streamlined. Gone is Scrooge's little sister, Fan, and gone, too, is Belle, the girl Scrooge almost married, but the three Christmas ghosts appear in all their mystery and magic. Mysterious and magical, too, is the new artwork, combining watercolor, pencil, and pastel to brighten the joyful parts of the story and shadow the eerie events. The result is a winning presentation, sure to please.

I bought several of these last year. One for my collection and a couple more to give as gifts.

A Classic Book Selected for Book club. To be donated to a local school library after reading and discussion. Book received in excellent condition.