"Imaginative stories and great illustrations"
"I absolutely loved these stories. They all gave me that warm fuzzy Christmassy feeling. The descriptions in the stories are amazing and really help you to picture what's going on…This book deserves to be very successful. It is absolutely delightful.
"These stories are warm and delightfully different approaches to the Christmas season, and each carries its own moral which children will easily be able to understand and appreciate. There is also humour to be found here and each of the stories is illustrated with clear and charming drawings, which will definitely appeal to the reader. Sue Hampton herself did the illustrations for ‘Aliens and Angels’, whilst the other two stories have drawings by children from two local First Schools. All three tales offer a perfect introduction to the true meaning of Christmas.
In Aliens and Angels Robbie longs to be an angel in the Christmas pageant at school, but, after his long blond curls are cut off he thinks it will never happen. He is cast as an alien in the play, but just can’t seem to get the actions right. His best friend Hannah wants to be an alien rather than an angel … and then on the night before the play, they both discover that ‘Nothing can stop them’ achieving their dreams.
Not without a Carrot! is a re-telling of the nativity story as seen through the eyes of Trouble the donkey. Trouble will only work if he’s rewarded with carrots, but, after he carries Mary to Bethlehem, he forgets all about carrots and is proud to work for nothing when he is part of the miracle of the baby Jesus’s birth. From then on his cry is no longer ‘Not without carrots’ but instead he unselfishly declares ‘Not without the baby!’
And finally in Bootee for Etta, Etta is left with neighbours on Christmas Day when her mother is rushed into hospital and her Dad is working in New York. Etta is sad and unhappy, particularly when being teased by Pavel, the neighbours’ son. Then, in a cracker Etta finds a tiny box with a little lamb inside – just when she has been longing for her own toy lamb from home. When Pavel finds the box, he sees something completely different inside it, and then Etta’s Dad finds another box on the plane bringing him home. The contents of these boxes change all of their lives forever…"
"I loved this book and thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Each story is different but all centre around the theme of Christmas, so this book will make an ideal Christmas present for young and old alike. The stories move from a modern day school Nativity, with a little boy who longs to fly like an Angel, to the very first Nativity, when Trouble the donkey's heart is touched and changed by his encounter with the birth of the baby Jesus, and finally, to Etta, whose worst Christmas very soon becomes life changing for her, her family and the people around her, and ends up becoming the best Christmas Day ever.
The illustrations, pictures drawn by primary school children, are wacky and lots of fun. I recommend buying this book and reading it as part of your Christmas anthology, to your children and to each other, each year. It reminds us that Christmas is about much more than the turkey, tinsel, too many presents and a big Credit Card bill in January."
Heather Pretty, school librarian
"I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Imaginative stories and great illustrations. Well done."
Jenefer Llewllyn Ferguson, Teifi Scribblers
"These stories are warm and delightfully different approaches to the Christmas season, and each carries its own moral which children will easily be able to understand and appreciate. There is also humour to be found here and each of the stories is illustrated with clear and charming drawings, which will definitely appeal to the reader. Sue Hampton herself did the illustrations for ‘Aliens and Angels’, whilst the other two stories have drawings by children from two local First Schools. All three tales offer a perfect introduction to the true meaning of Christmas.
In Aliens and Angels Robbie longs to be an angel in the Christmas pageant at school, but, after his long blond curls are cut off he thinks it will never happen. He is cast as an alien in the play, but just can’t seem to get the actions right. His best friend Hannah wants to be an alien rather than an angel … and then on the night before the play, they both discover that ‘Nothing can stop them’ achieving their dreams.
Not without a Carrot! is a re-telling of the nativity story as seen through the eyes of Trouble the donkey. Trouble will only work if he’s rewarded with carrots, but, after he carries Mary to Bethlehem, he forgets all about carrots and is proud to work for nothing when he is part of the miracle of the baby Jesus’s birth. From then on his cry is no longer ‘Not without carrots’ but instead he unselfishly declares ‘Not without the baby!’
And finally in Bootee for Etta, Etta is left with neighbours on Christmas Day when her mother is rushed into hospital and her Dad is working in New York. Etta is sad and unhappy, particularly when being teased by Pavel, the neighbours’ son. Then, in a cracker Etta finds a tiny box with a little lamb inside – just when she has been longing for her own toy lamb from home. When Pavel finds the box, he sees something completely different inside it, and then Etta’s Dad finds another box on the plane bringing him home. The contents of these boxes change all of their lives forever…"
Susan Curran, editor and creative writing tutor
"I loved this book and thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Each story is different but all centre around the theme of Christmas, so this book will make an ideal Christmas present for young and old alike. The stories move from a modern day school Nativity, with a little boy who longs to fly like an Angel, to the very first Nativity, when Trouble the donkey's heart is touched and changed by his encounter with the birth of the baby Jesus, and finally, to Etta, whose worst Christmas very soon becomes life changing for her, her family and the people around her, and ends up becoming the best Christmas Day ever.
The illustrations, pictures drawn by primary school children, are wacky and lots of fun. I recommend buying this book and reading it as part of your Christmas anthology, to your children and to each other, each year. It reminds us that Christmas is about much more than the turkey, tinsel, too many presents and a big Credit Card bill in January."
Kerry Hoult, Salopeot magazine
About the book
Sue Hampton captures the spirit of Christmas with three warm-hearted stories full of humour, mystery and magic – starring a boy who’d rather be an angel than a globalob, a donkey called Trouble and a girl with a cracker-sized lamb. With illustrations by children from schools Sue has visited, this is a book to make you smile at any time of year.
Sue Hampton captures the spirit of Christmas with three warm-hearted stories full of humour, mystery and magic – starring a boy who’d rather be an angel than a globalob, a donkey called Trouble and a girl with a cracker-sized lamb. With illustrations by children from schools Sue has visited, this is a book to make you smile at any time of year.
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