I went to see Santa by Paul Howard

Bloomsbury, 2017. ISBN 9781408844724
(Age: 2-5) Themes: Christmas. Santa Claus. Author and illustrator Paul Howard follows up on his successful picture book I Went to the Supermarket with this cheerful story I went to see Santa. Youngsters will be familiar with this fun and easy to play circle game, where each one repeats the refrain then adds a new item starting with the next alphabet letter. In this amusing story, a young brother and sister use their creativity and imagination to conjure up some unusual Christmas-themed items.
The amusing illustrations use strong primary colours and close-up scenes to make the characters stand out from their bright backgrounds. There are bright green glasses with Santa hats, amazing magic sets, even a friendly reindeer with twinkling lights on its antlers. From a coin-filled pirate chest, we quickly move on to seven cute seven dancing penguins and a band of merry elves throwing snowballs. Each of the characters actively joins in with the activity on the new double page spread, floating in space, decorating the giant gingerbread tree and cheering as Santa finally appears.
I went to see Santa is a fun story to share with young children who will love the repetitive and cumulative text; they will soon join in and share in the fun of the story, even though the text is not in alphabetical order.
Rhyllis Bignell