It's Christmas, David! by David Shannon

 It's Christmas, David!  by David Shannon

Rating: 2.5 stars

Will I get coal in my stocking if I give a bad rating to a book this close to Christmas?  Hope not...

I'm not a fan of most of David Shannon's books, including the whole No, David! series.  His colorful but crude drawings depicting various degrees of naughtiness (or "bad choices") are definitely amusing to kids, but...these are images--and sometimes words*--that I'd prefer my kids not see or hear/read.

Each two-page spread in It's Christmas, David! has David's parents telling him something NOT to do: Don't look for presents before Christmas! Don't swipe the Christmas cookies!  Don't pay with the ornaments!  Don't throw snowballs at the windows!

(It's only funny if it's not your child...)

Finally, on Christmas morning, David receives a few "yeses" and can do the things he's been wanting to do.  Except throw snowballs at the windows...I'm guessing that one is still off limits.

For me, it's just not entirely funny.  With two boys I'd like to limit their inspiration for mischief as much as possible.


* In Alice the Fairy (review here) Alice calls her mother "the wicked Duchess."  I assure you that, even when accurate, hearing that from one of my children's mouths would send me through the roof.