Kiwi Mummy Blog Review - An Unexpected Christmas

I offered to review a book for the wonderful team at Kiwi Mummy Blogs and was so excited today when it arrived to see it was "An Unexpected Christmas" a book written by a very talented writer/Author and fellow Kiwi Mummy blogger Simone Graham of blog: greatfun4kidsblog.com .  Being a follower of Simones blog I guess made the book that much more special to me, and I could hear her in this wonderful story. She is a Mum, and such a creative person, that there was no question that a book written by her originally as a gift for her own Children would be anything less than exciting/fun/imaginative, and it certainly lived up to all of that! How lucky are all of us, that she was encouraged by friends to get it published! (Thanks friends of Simone!).

Now I had seen the short film made by St Pauls Arts & Media (in Auckland, New Zealand) of this book previously, and thoroughly enjoyed it, but getting the book, and something in my hot little hands to "flick through" made the experience that much better!  I only managed a quick little read through before my children spotted the book and begged to have a read.  My Master 9yrs offered to read it to Miss 4yrs, whilst we travelled to the Summer show, and for once we had a fantastic car ride with no arguing or over the top noise.

"An Unexpected Christmas" is a story about God seeing that the world had turned to custard, and needed some intervention on his behalf.  Much to the disbelief of the Angels, he decides to send his own Son...the Prince of Heaven, but in the most unexpected place (full of poo), and to the most unexpected of people. The dialogue between God and the Angels is great, and both Kids and Adults alike will love the story!

There is nothing "not to like" about this book.  The pictures are fantastic, and interesting.  The text/font is visually appealing and not at all boring, the added speech bubbles an extra bonus!.  Even the size of the book is great, just the perfect size for Kiddies to be able to "manage".

Both of my children LOVED the book, and laughed at the "they won't be expecting that" bit! and of course the part about being born in a stable (filled with animals, and full of poop).  We've had the book one whole day now and Miss 4yrs almost knows the whole thing by heart!

I think this book would be a fantastic gift if you can get your hands on it!  I also think it will be one of our favourite "read every year around Christmas time" books, you know the kind to get you in the real "festive spirit".  The added bonus with this book for us as a family is that we like to focus on Jesus being the reason for the season, not Santa Claus (we still do Santa, but Jesus is in the fore-front in our household), so that's great that we can have Christ-focused Christmas stories like this.   In saying that, I think that it appeals to everyone.

To end this review, I will provide a summary from myself (Mummy aged 40yrs), from my son Asher (aged 9yrs) and my daughter Kendyl (aged 4yrs).


Fellow-reviewers Kendyl and Asher.


Would you recommend this book to others?
Me:  Yes to everyone..definitely!
Asher: Oh man yeah, it's a cool book.
Kendyl: I will tell allllll of my friends its funny!

Would you buy this book?
Me:  Yes, and I would urge others to do so quickly before they sell out!
Asher:  Yep if I had enough money to I would.
Kendyl: Can I buy it now?? Do we have to give this one back (sad face)???

Rate this book 1-10  10 being the best score ever!
Me:  10
Asher:  10
Kendyl:  10

Thanks Kiwi Mummy Blogs and Simone for providing the opportunity to give our independent and unbiased review on "An Unexpected Christmas".