A rare treat—I get to share a review of a new children's Christmas book with two reviewers who can relate more than I. Tolade and Tolani are older than the target audience ( 6 to 8 ), but not by much. Tolade ( 9 ) awarded 4.5 stars out of five to the delightful story of a young boy and his gay dads on a quest to find a present for a child they do not know. Her sister, Tolani ( 10 ), gave the book four stars.
The story is told in rhyme, which both girls liked. The accompanying illustrations are dynamic and vivid and make up half the book, as they fully occupy each right-hand page.
The story is about a young boy who gets excited about the holiday approaching as his dads break out the decorations and dress up their home with colorful lights, lawn ornaments and a beautiful tree. They then descend to the town square to admire the Christmas tree there that displays the names and wishes of children who don't have much.
The boy picks Michael Clay's wish. He wants a fire truck. The boy narrator, with his dads' help, wraps the toy truck they purchased as their gift for Michael. A disaster ensues, destroying the toy truck and their Christmas tree. But Grandma comes to the rescue. She produces a real fire truck to give to Michael. ( You'll have to read the book for a clue as to how she pulls this off. )
There are some details in the book that disappointed my co-reviewers, but they staunchly stand by their star ratings. Tolade thinks some of the words might be hard for a 6-year-old but we agreed an adult could help explain them. A dog is shown in many of the illustrations but never introduced in the text. ( That bothered me, too. ) Michael is the only person in the book with a name. We all wanted to know more about who these people are. Tolani also wanted more detail on how Grandma got the real fire truck.
Summing up the moral of The Christmas Truck, Tolade points out that you don't need a tree to have a good Christmas. She considers Blankenship's tale different from other Christmas books for this age group in that the boy and his dads give a present to someone they don't know. Tolani says much the same thing. The moral for her is, "You can do little things to make someone feel good."
Well, the boy starts out with the intention of giving a little fire truck to fulfill Michael's wish. With his grandma's help, the little truck becomes a real one. I guess Grandma really is Santa, if she can magically deliver a real truck and leave it in Michael's hands to enjoy. Tolani points out that Grandma represents Santa, and the fire truck his sleigh. I will resist the temptation to look at the flaws in this formula. The book is for a much younger audience than me—a demographic that chooses to believe in such possibilities. Maybe they have the right idea after all.
