New Year is always a hard concept to get across to little ones, particularly Miss M who’s birthday falls on New Year’s day. She finds it hard to grasp the concept that her birthday is next year when it is only a few weeks away. So when I was offered to review the updated version of a traditional German tale by poet Eduard Mörike about the magical journey of Sylvester as he travels by moon horses to Earth to deliver the New Year and return the Old Year back to be rejuvenated by the River of Life, I thought it’d be a great opportunity to talk about the change from one year to another with Miss M as well as enjoying a story with lots of lovely colour illustrations.
The book is a lovely size with many more pages in it than I expected. The pages are strong and of high quality, with each one beautifully illustrated. The story is a good length too, being aimed at a child of 5+, it is neither too short or too long with just a couple of lines of text on each page ensuring the child stays focussed and interested in the story.
I enjoyed sitting down with Miss M in the evenings to read this magical tale, it is perfect for this time of year, with a festive feel to it – although Miss M did ask if Sylvester was Santa at one point with his long white beard!! It has given Miss M a better understanding of the concept that as one year goes, a new year comes in and she did enjoy the magical tale that went with it.
I think this is a really enjoyable story to sit down to read especially in the run up to New Year and has a traditional feel to it without being dated. I look forward to reading this many more times with Miss M on the run up to her 5th Birthday at New Year!!
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And if you wish to purchase a hard back copy of this book for £9.99 it can be found here on Amazon.
All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions. We are not paid for reviews although we do receive the product to try out and enable us to write the review.
