View source for Merry Christmas, Little Cheeps! by Julie Stiegemeyer

{{infobox2
|title=Merry Christmas, Little Cheeps!
|author=Julie Stiegemeyer
|reviewer=Magda Healey
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=A good book Christmas board book for toddlers and young pre-schoolers if you can ignore roast dinner associations.
|rating=3.5
|buy=Maybe
|borrow=Maybe
|pages=24
|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
|date=October 2007
|isbn=978-0747588108
|aznuk=0747588104
|aznus=0747588104
|cover=0747588104
}}
It's the Christmas season again, and children's (particularly
pre-schoolers') Christmas theme books abound. And why not - after all all other media are getting rather full of Christmas stuff, too.

''Merry Christmas, Little Cheeps!'' is a novelty board book for the
youngest audience and it follows a family of chickens as they prepare for
the festivities (I promise I will refrain from poor poultry jokes as much
as possible).

The concept is actually a good one: each square page is devoted to one
activity, or really a simple action, like placing a star on top of the
tree, jumping for joy, making a wish, catching snowflakes and similar. The
text is very simple, usually just a phrase, sometimes only a few
sound-words, but it works well and provides ample material to work with
for a parent of a toddler that's just starting to get on with books.

The illustrations are sweet without being saccharine: Carol Baicker-McKee
creates images with paint, fabric and clay and the book contains
photographs of those. Many of the boards have a single object which can
be the starting point for a story, or just used for naming or pointing. There
is even a cookie recipe!

The joy and excitement of preparing for family Christmas is well captured
in both the artwork and the text.

Why only 3.5 stars, then? I have to come back to poultry here,
unfortunately. I don't particularly like the over-abundance of
anthropomorphic animals in children's' stories in general, though I am not
totally and a priori biased against them. However, I felt a tad queasy
looking at all those chirpy chickens, unable to forget that the
centrepiece of the most popular British Christmas dinner is a close
relative of the characters in this book (I might have been unduly
influenced by the fact that I personally cooked a large chicken for
Christmas dinners in various circumstances quite a few times).

I know these were terry towelling (=toy) chicks, and I know that 2 year
olds are unlikely to make this connection, and I know we shouldn't eat
anything that we are not prepared to at least see alive before it gets
dispatched to the stove, but still I was a bit uncomfortable with the
choice of the animal in ''Merry Christmas, Little Cheeps!''. Even
penguins would be better!

Recommended for vegetarian parents of toddlers, roast-making ones have to
decide for themselves how much they would be subject to squeamishness
transfer.

Thanks to the publishers for sending this to the Bookbag.

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