Book Review: The King's Christmas List

The King’s Christmas List by Eldon Johnson, illustrated by Bonnie Leick is a children’s picture book about a little girl, Emma, and her dog Shu-Shu. In this imaginary tale, Emma and Shu-Shu receive a golden invitation to the King’s birthday party. They collect a gift for the King and set out in a horse drawn carriage for the party. Along the way, they encounter some families in need and give away their gifts and treasures to help. At the party, they discover that by helping the families in need, they gave a gift to the King. The story is a great tool for families who want to expand their holiday gift giving into doing more to help others. At the end of the book, resources are provided to generate ideas to help others during the holiday season. While the book focuses on the Christmas season, the concept could be used at any time to teach about reaching out and helping others. The illustrations are very nice and detailed. I found some of the wording to lack a sense of flow, but my children enjoyed having the story read to them repeatedly and looking at the pictures. Disclosure: I received this book free from BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program, but the opinions expressed are my own (FTC 16 CFR, Part 255).