Monday, December 7, 2020

Holiday Review: The Gingerbread House by Laura Gia West

It's time for another Holiday Review! Today's book is a picture book, which heads in a yummy direction—Gingerbread! I loved the cover on this one and found the little, skating men super cute.  It takes off from the tale of the running gingerbread man..."Run, run as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man."


THE GINGERBREAD HOUSE
by Laura Gia West
Picture Book
Holiday Fiction
31 pages
ages 4 to 8











Run run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me…. or can you?

Every Christmas season, gingerbread men come alive. The only way to keep them around until Christmas, is through a treasured and tasty secret. If it’s done right, something special is left behind.




MY TIDBITS

This gingerbread man is hard to catch in a fun read, which leaves the reader smiling.

The gingerbread man is not a calm character. He dances and taps and does the jig all over the house, refusing to be caught by anyone. But there's one trick, which is sure to make this guy stop is constant movement and play. These pages reveal exactly how to do this...and find more.

This book wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but it was still cute. The main character comes from the popular nursery rhyme about the running gingerbread man, who can't be caught. This one loves to dance, too, and pops all over the house, which has been decorated for the holidays. It definitely fits the Christmas season and awakes the desire to nibble into a fresh gingerbread man. There's life throughout the book, keeping the pacing high until the end. It does take an unexpected twist about half-way through, which switches into a surprise.

The rhymes fit the intended age group pretty well...although some terms won't be known to them. It works best as a read-aloud. The adventure is fun to follow, although stretched on a bit longer than I expected. While most of the illustrations are pretty, vibrant and enjoyable, a couple were obviously plopped and pasted together. 

Still, the tale is fun and refreshing with more than a little life and excitement. Plus, it's a great way to get kids to want to try to create a gingerbread house of their own.

I received a complimentary copy.

1 comment:

Elizabeth Varadan, Author said...

Nice review. I remember that rhyme. And I also remember fondly making gingerbread men for Christmas in our house. We didn't use cookie cutters in that traditional shape. Instead we rolled the dough into shapes and made gingerbread men that were leaping and dancing like, apparently, the ones in this book. After baking them, we iced them, usually in little red jackets and caps with white trim. Eating them was just delicious.