Read & Think: The Christmas Giant
Like many other mamas I know, I have to confess to thoroughly enjoying a nice trip to Target. I love wandering the aisles and seeing what the design partnerships & licensing products they stock have put together recently. When I was still earning my design degree, a alum came back to talk to us about her career designing home goods for Target, and I remember thinking to myself, ‘Yup. She is livin’ the dream!’.
When I was browsing some of the holiday books offered at our local library, I came across Steve Light’s The Christmas Giant. I immediately fell in love with the illustrations, and happily pulled the book down to look through it more closely. It took a few read-throughs of the book before I realized why I was so drawn to the images in the book- they reminded me of the wrapping paper I had been trying to justify purchasing at Target last week. [For the record, I didn’t purchase the wrapping paper. Yet. But it’s not even December yet, so no promises!] Both the wrapping paper and The Christmas Giant feature graphic, rustic drawings that have an almost etched/woodblock print look to them.
And really, because I love art and design so much, I’m usually guilty of judging a book by it’s cover (at least I can admit it), so The Christmas Giant was checked out right away. The story follows two of Santa’s helpers, Humphrey the giant and Leetree the elf, who have another one of my dream jobs- they make the wrapping paper for the North Pole workshop. The two friends work well together, despite the obvious disparities in their sizes, and when things go wrong, they problem solve as a team and find a way to save the day.
After #thebigone and I had read through the book, we talked a bit about what made Leetree & Humphrey well suited for the jobs they did. We talked about the difference between huge people and smaller people, and how they might be stronger at some tasks and weaker at others based on their stature. #thebigone spent a few minutes thinking about what other sort of responsibilities might be best suited to a tiny elf like Leetree, and then did a little writing and drawing on the topic.
What sorts of jobs do your kids think an elf would be best equipped for? Use the free printables as an extension of the book, to encourage some creative thought, writing, and drawing.
What did they come up with? I’d love to know, so please share in the comments, or tag me on social media!
Here’s a goldmine of the great activities to enhance reading time with your children.