Greta, the older sister, is a Christmas expert. She is a LOUD verbose girl who is just so opinionated. Gracie rarely gets a word in. Here is a speech by Greta. Try and read this all in one breath:
"Oh! Father Christmas is just WONDERFUL! He is the best and nicest man and he has a sleigh and reindeer and they give presents to good little girls and boys and he has a HAT and a red coat and a big white bushy beard and he eats BISCUITS! You can write him a letter and he'll come and visit and say 'Ho! Ho! Ho!' and he puts things in stockings and he wears BIG BOOTS so his feet are warm and he has BIG buttons on his coat and they are so shiny and sparkly."
Gracie, the little sister, is a quiet girl. She is happy to listen to Greta (mostly) but she also takes her time with things enjoys noticing all thee wonders of the world around her. On Christmas eve Gracie hears a funny noise. She quietly leaves her sleeping sister and slowly tiptoes down to the sitting room. She's small enough to slip inside and once there she meets Father Christmas.
What a wonderful night it is:
"So Gracie helped Father Christmas with all the parcels and then they sat together eating biscuits and drinking milk. They talked about all sorts of things and Gracie asked Father Christmas all the questions she wanted to, until it was time for him to go on his way."
On Christmas morning Gracie reads a label from one present:
"For Gracie, Thank you for your help . It was very nice to meet you. Love Father Christmas."
Greta can hardly speak and so finally Gracie can use HER voice. I love the way this just feels fair rather than a case of winners and losers. Gracie and Greta are siblings and even though she is just so bossy I am sure Greta does love little Gracie just as much as Gracie loves her big sister.
Christmas for Greta and Gracie just begs to be read beside Max's Christmas.
I have borrowed over twenty Christmas books from the library of a friend ready for my twelve books of Christmas this year. It is a really diverse selection but I am going to say Christmas for Greta and Gracie is my favourite. This might be a big call because I am only up to my third book of the twelve.
You can see some pages from this book on the Nosy Crow web site.
I am ashamed to say I was unfamiliar with the work of Yasmeen Ismail until I read Christmas for Greta and Gracie. Now I am very keen to see some of her other titles:
In an interview with Yasmeen I read she loved Acorns and Stew as a child so it is another title to add to my huge "to read" list. I do love the work of Ruth Orbach - I have talked about Apple pigs in a previous post.
1 comment:
I'm a Girl is a must read!
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