Jane Cabrera

English author/artist Jane Cabrera, known for her many picture-book adaptations of classic children's songs, here turns her attention to that beloved Christmas carol, presenting a humorously sweet variation on the standard version. Bright acrylic artwork is paired with verses in which most of the gifts consist of various animal friends of the two children on the cover. "Twelve penguins skating, eleven reindeer dancing," and so on. The song concludes here with a ride home on Santa's show more sleigh...

I was unfamiliar with Cabrera's work before picking up The 12 Days of Christmas, but given my interest in picture-book presentations of Christmas carols, I immediately snapped it up, when I saw it on the holiday shelves at my public library. I see from the rear jacket blurb that most of her other books are also song adaptations, leading me to wonder if all of them are revisionist takes, like this one. I enjoyed the cute artwork here, sang my way through the altered lyrics, and think this an enjoyable holiday picture-book. That said, as someone who enjoys Christmas carol picture-books enough to seek them out, this won't ever become a favorite. It's sweet, but lacks the beauty of the gorgeouly illustrated traditional versions, done by artists like Laurel Long and Jane Ray. Still, I won't belabor the point - tastes vary, and this one will undoubtedly be a hit with many young children at Christmastime. show less

Old MacDonald with his grayish hair and white collared sweater runs his farm with his wife and in the end they have a baby - otherwise the rhyme is entirely familiar. Old MacDonald reacting to goats munching away in his flower bed adds some humor the story. SImple illustrations will appeal to young children.

Cabrera has created many excellent books for toddlers and this board book fits nicely into that oevre. The book cover has a square window; turn the page and you will see a swashy blue background with a cat and a bird in a cage. The window is labeled "out" and the cat is labeled "in". Other spreads show a curly grey dog and, behind a lift-the-flap bone, a small dog for "tall" and "short," a tortoise and hare in the desert, red fox in the night and hedgehog in a tent for "dark" and "light," show more and so on. The final spread shows a black cat against a green background labeled "in front." On the opposite page, a yellow bush lifts to reveal the word "behind" and an orange bush, which lifts to reveal a blue bush, and finally a small black cat who says "boo!"

The flaps are not ideal - they are thin cardboard and you have to hook a finger into a little half-moon cut-out to get them open. However, the rest of the book is very sturdy and with some additional reinforcement (and a fair amount of luck) it should be ok. The night-time picture, showing the hedgehog in a tent, might actually be a tipi, but the dark picture makes it possible to assume tent which is what I'm going with. It's not uncommon to see things like that in books originally created in Britain. I'm trying to be more relaxed about buying more board books with moving parts and I think this is a good choice.

Verdict: If you are expanding your lift-the-flap and concept collections, this is a fun addition that toddlers are sure to enjoy.

ISBN: 9781499806304; This edition published August 2017 by little bee; Purchased for the library show less

Cabrera's signature painterly illustrations are as cute as usual, but unfortunately the story didn't make as much sense to me. The Daily Sniff being a mode of communication and headlines wasn't really illustrated, and then it being interrupted by a lost family of skunks. I also thought it was weird that in order to cheer up Ted while he had to wear his cone, the family took off the cone and used it to catch a ball off the top of mom's head. This one could have used some better editing.