Flexible Parenting Reviews

This is a part of Formula Fed and Flexible Parenting. It contains a write-up of products and services that I review, mostly but not entirely related to parenting, families, and children.

Flexible Links

My Blogging Inspiration
Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS) & Other Rants

Skiplovey

Slouching Past 40

Flexible Affiliations

Get great free widgets at Widgetbox!

- Crazy/Hip Blog-Mamas +
(Random Site)

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Positive Spin Review

It seems like there are a lot of holiday books out there. Good holiday books though seem hard to find. Seriously one year I got my older son (OS) what I thought would be a cute modern twist on the Twelve Days of Christmas using monsters. After the 5th day in the song, all the gifts were replaced with the word monster. It was neither creative nor fun to read.

When The Parent Bloggers Network was looking for people to review the Positive Spin holiday books, I was immediately interested. There were three books to review: All Hallows Eve The Story of the Halloween Fairy by Lisa and Tucker Johnson, Christmas Eve The Joy of Giving by Lisa Sferlazza Johnson, and Winters Eve Love and Lights also by Lisa Sferlazza Johnson. I have to admit the books were different than what I expected. The Tuckers are parents to a 4 year old girl. They came up with the idea for the Halloween book when they realized that they wanted their toddler to be able to participate in the fun and festivities of Halloween but not overindulge in candy. Their goals for the books are "helping children understand the world they live in, and creating a positive way for them to learn about it."

All three books star a fairy named Eve who can make tiny toys whom my boys just loved. I also liked Eve and more importantly I liked that Eve's theme was consistent through all three books. I also enjoyed the creativity of the books, particularly the Halloween book. It tells the story of a birthday celebration for Eve on Hallows Eve. Eve is upset that she can't make candy no matter how hard she tries, so her friends go around asking people for candy to surprise Eve. One fairy can't give Eve's friend Jack candy, but teaches Jack a trick - how to turn into a Jack-o-lantern. I took that opportunity to explain to my boys exactly what trick or treat means. I don't think OS had thought about it before then. I also enjoyed the way Eve decided to exchange toys for candy at the end of the book. I myself have previously bribed my sons with toys for candy and I felt like this book would lend itself to me embracing the idea of a Halloween fairy for whom the boys would leave candy to find toys in their place. In fact, the Positive Spin website states, “All Hallows Eve…has even led to a partnership between the Johnson family and the American Diabetes Association, whose joint goal is to offer healthy alternatives for children who can’t participate in the Halloween candy-fest."

The next book we read was the Christmas book. The boys liked this book too. It's a story about how Santa's elves are sick and so he needs Eve to help out. The story describes how the spirit of the gift counts rather than the size, because again Eve can only make small toys. The book emphasises how important gratitude is for gifts. Again, a nice story with a nice and consistent theme. There was plenty to talk about in this book. What caught me off guard, was that this book is religious. Now, coming as someone who is a Unitarian married to someone who is Jewish and thus looks for books on different religions for my kids, I am not offended by this. It is a small part of the book and is presented as a story rather than as an absolute truth. However, I am used to reading secular Christmas books to my kids. Hence the 12 Monsters of Christmas. Thus I was surprised when I read the part about the Lord Jesus being our king. It also made me wonder about Eve's name. When I carefully re-read the Halloween book, it remained clear to me that the name made sense because the first book is about Hallow's Eve and thus the fairy's name is appropriately Eve. My kids particularly liked another part of the Christmas story that depicted Santa as a young man.

The third book is about all different holidays around the world. This is the book that I found the most interesting. A variety of religious and non-religious winter celebrations are discussed, including Hanukkah and the Chinese New Year. While my kids listened to the book, it was their least favorite of the three. I think my 5 year old is simply too young for it. I suspect that in a couple of years it will be a good book for him.

What I liked about all three books was that the stories offered a lot of room for discussion. I liked the catchy rhyming. I also liked the background that went into each story like Eve not being able to make candy or Santa's sled being small but growing with each gift. I felt like a lot of thought went into these books. However, I feel I would be remiss if I didn't say again that despite the secular appearance of the Christmas book, it does have strong religious references. My kids have certainly enjoyed them and I would recommend them. You can purchase these books at amazon.com

posted by Alex Elliot @ 9:16 PM 0 comments

0 Comments:

My Profile

Name:	Alex Elliot
Home:	MA, United States
About Me:	Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 6 year old and a 3 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe.
See my complete profile