TITLE: The First Christmas Sweater (and the Sheep Who Changed Everything)
BY: Ryan Tubridy, illustrated by Chris Judge (Walker Books, September), ages 7 to 10, 144 pages, $14.99 hardcover, $14.24 Kindle.
STORY: Tubridy is an Irish radio and TV personality known for humor and good deeds. Although he wrote a sensitive children's picture book, Patrick and the President, with thoughtfully researched illustrations by P.J. Lynch, this book is not that. Instead, it is a thoroughly silly story with puns that beg to be booed (or baa'ed) and black-and-white illustrations that beg to be colored in using crayons.
The heroine is Hillary, a sheep with unnaturally colorful fleece. She stands out in her field. She makes lists. The lists are full of puns. She has friends. They are odd. She likes Christmas.
One day, Santa plucks her from the field and carries her by sleigh to the North Pole, where she is gently shorn and a sweater is made from her wool. Unconcerned that she might catch a chill, being bare, Santa flies her back to her field. Her farmers give her a patchwork coat. The end.
In Ireland, the title is The First Christmas Jumper because sweaters there are called jumpers. Tubridy reads from the Irish edition here.
Read to Me is a weekly review of short books.
Style on 12/09/2019