Caillou: Happy Holidays! by Marilyn Pleau-Murissi. illustrations by Eric Sévigny. ©2017. Chouette Publishing.

Another children’s classic featuring the beloved Caillou. This time the early grade story takes us on a journey through Caillou’s multicultural learning during the 12 days of the Christmas holiday with his family. Great illustrations.

Thanks to Netgalley UK for providing this ebook for review.

Another contribution from this bright, familiar series. this book can quickly become a favourite and whilst this one is particular to the holiday season, Caillou has several different adventures for your child to pick up. The idea of being able to support a little one in the exciting build up to Christmas alongside introducing them to the wider world and traditions of other cultures is a wonderful idea and one to be applauded. Who knows, reading this book may add to your own christmas traditions.

This book from the Caillou story library is one I've enjoyed most. The illustrations are bright and colorful and feature Caillou, a toddler favorite.

The story focuses on teaching Christmas traditions to Caillou through use of an advent calendar. The details shared about the winter holiday celebrations in other countries are interesting and simple enough concepts that children will understand and relate. I like that the information presented offers many opportunities for discussion with your own children or students. The background story of Rosie's Christmas presents and the missing household items is also adorable.

Like this character. Fun reading with kids and watching them learn the lessons as well. Great story and illistrations! Would recommend.

This is a cute book for any child during the holidays. It's a little tough to read an e-book to a one year old, so I think having a print copy would have been much more enjoyable, but it's overall still a really cute book.

I mostly enjoyed the descriptions of how holidays traditions were started. It was really informative and even I learned some things that I didn't know. I also enjoyed that it was told by going through an advent calendar, I thought that was a creative way to make a child learn.

Sometimes the book seemed to jump from one place to another. I'm not sure if it's due to reading an e-copy of it or not. But the pictures would be on separate pages and then the storyline seemed to jump also.

Overall, it was a cute book and something I would most likely buy for my son.

This was longer than I expected. I did like the incorporation of different holidays for religions and countries. My only concern is that the age range for Caillou fans is fairly young and these children would lose interest due to the length.

The adorable little scamp with seemingly hundreds of books/stories under his belt—without ever growing older—now takes on Christmas, with a special calendar that shows traditions from around the world.
Cheese pancakes in Austria? Never heard of them, but now I’m hungry.
His little sister takes regifting to a whole new level!
As always, these simple stories will be enjoyable for kids.
3.5 pushed up to 4/5

My children love watching Caillou. They easily identify with this little boy and his daily challenges as he learns about the world we live in. A Caillou Christmas story was therefore an ideal pick for them. The Happy Holidays story takes us on a Christmas journey around the world through Caillou’s Advent Calendar. Every night leading up to Christmas, Daddy and Mummy help Caillou and his little sister Rosie open a new window on the calendar and tell them a story. We journey to Mexico and Turkey and we hop all over Europe with our young learners, as they explore Christmas traditions around the world. There’s even a little Christmas mystery to solve.

This story is short, sweet, entertaining and quite interactive, at least by my experience. Upon, reading about the visit to Mexico and coming across “Feliz Navidad“, my boys decided to sing the Christmas song! I found the simplicity with which different cultures and traditions were explained to be very refreshing and appropriate for young readers. We also learnt a new word: Sinterklass which is the name Santa goes by in Holland. I just hope I taught them the correct pronunciation! 🙊

I read the electronic version of the hardcover book, so the formatting of the text and illustrations is a bit odd and the graphics are on the smaller side. The illustrations are, however, clear and bright. I look forward to seeing them in the hardcover book.

Overall I found this story to be a very effective tool for teaching my children about Christmas traditions around the world. I highly recommend it.

5/5

Caillou is learning all about Christmas preparations and traditions not only in his own home but in other countries around the entire globe as well. He is surrounded by a flurry of Christmas engagement that his whole family is invited to participate in.

His mom is busy writing Christmas cards to send to family and friends and his dad surprises him with an advent calendar so he can track how many sleeps until that exciting special day arrives. He discovers as he opens each window on this calendar a unique story of the how Christmas customs came to be.

Caillou is invited to his friend Sarah's Christmas pageant, helps decorate the family tree, gives away some of his gently-used toys to charity and learns that Christmas is all about the importance of family, giving, sharing and waiting patiently (and productively) for an exciting day to arrive!

The illustrations are bright, crisp, vibrant and detailed. They add so much enrichment to the story and are beautifully done. This book is part of the Caillou series which I encourage you to check out. This book is wonderful and I endorse it whole-heartedly.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

I read this holiday book to my 4 year old grandson and he thoroughly enjoyed it as did I! There are simple, colorful illustrations that he could relate to.

What I liked about the book is that it talked about family traditions, the Christmas tree, the special meal, countdown calendars etc. however it also educates children as to some customs in other countries and also the origin of Santa Claus (St. Nicholas) and leaving stockings out for Santa to fill with Christmas treats. “In France, children would leave their shoes by the fireplace, In Holland, Santa is called Sinterklass and children there would leave hay and carrots in their shoes for Sinterklass’s horse”. These stories were interesting and short enough to keep my grandson’s interest, the illustrations also helped to tell the stories. Caillou received a calendar which counted down the last ten days before Christmas and behind each window was a story about other Christmas traditions. We also have what we call Advent calendars which count down the days until Christmas starting from December 1, so Finn was excited to see these calendars mentioned in a book.

I will definitely be looking for more books about Caillou and understand that these books are adapted from animated films which have aired on PBS.

This is a wonderful Christmas story for young children. It is a little longer than the usual Caillou book, but that is not an issue. The illustrations are once again large, colourful and vibrant. In this story Caillou's dad gives him an advent calendar (only 12 days) that has a story behind each door. The stories teach about Christmas customs around the world or the history of a Christmas symbol or activity. Along the way, he learns about sharing and caring. A great addition to any Christmas library.

This is a really cute book for children to have at Christmas. The story is great and the images are nice, bright and clear. I liked that the story allows children to learn as well as having fun with the story - 5 stars from me and definitely a book I would get for my daughter!

It's a cute book. My children were already fans of Caillou. My nephew who is now in college watched it as a child when I would babysit for him and my toddler enjoys it now. It's brightly colored and has multiple story lines. It's almost Christmas and Caillou is anxious and excited. His father helps him find a way to ease the anticipation just a bit. All of our favorite characters are in the book. The minor story lines add a fun addition, Items are missing and no one knows where they are. It gives information about different Christmas traditions (how/where they began) and how other countries and cultures celebrate. It's a book I would buy for my children.