Cover Image: The First Christmas Sweater (and the Sheep Who Changed Everything)

The First Christmas Sweater (and the Sheep Who Changed Everything)

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Member Reviews

First sentence: I’d like to tell you a curious story the likes of which you have never heard before. This tale begins with a sheep. Not a red-nosed one, just a regular, run-of-the-mill, everyday, nothing-to-see-here sheep.

Premise/plot: Hilary, the super-unique sheep, loves, loves, loves, loves, loves Christmas. One day the farm receives a very special visitor. Hilary's life may never be the same. This chapter book is a fun look at how the first Christmas jumper (aka sweater) came to be.

My thoughts: I enjoyed this humorous tale. Hilary and the other sheep live on an Irish farm. It was a cute-enough tale that little ones may love. It features some illustrations throughout.

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The First Christmas Sweater (and the Sheep Who Changed Everything) is a fun chapter book for beginning chapter book readers. It tells the story of a sheep who dares to be different.

The concept of the story was cute. I thought it was clever to have a sheep be the main character in a Christmas book. Typically, sheep only get attention when they were in the manager. This fun story puts a sheep right in the middle of all the Christmas Extravaganza.

My six-year-old daugher loved the simplicity of this text, and she thought the sheep was hilarious throughout the entire story! The illustrations grabbed her attention, and she loved that she was able to ready a large portion of the story by herself.

As for me, I thought the story was cute. It did lack a lot of plot detail. I never felt like anything much happened, except for the sheep being constantly silly.

In the end, my daughter loved it, and that is what matters. Sometimes, kids just love simple books that allow them to be silly. This was a win for her, and I enjoyed having the chance to read alongside her.

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Interesting but without any conflict made this not super compelling. I wanted a story arc of some kind.

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I was given this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This children's chapter book is pretty cute. It's full (maybe a little too full) of sheep puns. Overall it's a quick read and very cheerful. The illustrations are adorable and enhance the story. For me, I wish more of the set up had paid off. We are told and retold how Hilary comes out on top for her differences, but she's never experienced anything negative for being different. And ultimately she's awarded for her outward appearance -- her list making, and kindness and love of Christmas are more or less irrelevant. It's cute, but more so that having a solid message, I'm left feeling like someone just really wanted to write a sheep book.

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A sweet story that will be a great read aloud when the family gathers together for Christmas time. The pictures through the book will sure to be a delight.

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Christmas books seldom live up to expectations. Or are so alike, one could serve for all! This is one of the exceptions- it's an original story!! And a great one, too! Written by Ireland's own- Ryan Tubridy, host of 5 tv and radio shows (I had to read up about him on Google.) . His love of Christmas sweaters seems to have been the inspiration for this book. You can read about it on his author page at the end of the book. I also enjoyed the last few pages of the book, after the story ended, for it's silly jokes; kids will love them! The story itself takes place on a sheep farm in Ireland, where a most colorful sheep is born. Later, Santa, in need of a warm sweater for his Christmas Eve ride, visits the farm to check out the sheep fleece and discovers Hillary. Hillary has quite the adventure once discovered. Kids will love it! Fun story!

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The First Christmas Sweater was a really fun read. From the characters and their quirks to the location and story together made for a great story. This isn’t the usual kind of holiday book to come out and that is a welcome change. I can see readers of all ages having a lot of fun reading this book.

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Tubridy's book is a hilarious chapter book for younger middle grade readers. Filled with sheep jokes, human jokes, Santa Claus, and the true meaning of home and family, many kids will love it.

Thank you NetGalley and Candlewick Press for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy.

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To be completely honest I was expecting something different from this children's book..
I think it was okay but I wont be buying this one for my nephew.

I requested and received an Advanced Readers Copy from the publisher and NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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This book. There are some clever jokes. I couldn't help but appreciate the "Naughty List" (although it might limit who reads the book depending on their political inclinations!). The jokes are just over the top though - and go on and on. I think fewer jokes - just choosing from the best ones - would be much less heavy-handed.

This book could benefit from a lot of editing. There is a page devoted to facts on tractors, but then tractors are never mentioned again. I always think of children's books really needing to be tightly written. Every word should matter. I feel like there is a lot of extraneous content in this book.

It's supposed to be a children's book, but some of the vocabulary will go right over a child's head. "He regaled them" or "staged a coup" are two such examples.

It's a cute story with potential, but I just wish that it would have received much more editing prior to its being published.

Thanks to netgalley for the advance reading copy. I read the children's books with my son and I love the opportunity to review them with him. #netgalley #thefirstchristmassweaterandsheepwhochangedeverything

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While I was super interested in the idea of this book, it just didn't live up to my expectations. I thought it would be an adorable little story about the first Christmas Sweater, but, although it was cute, I just didn't connect with it like I would have wanted. There were way too many sheep-related puns that kind of took me out of the story. Overall, I enjoyed the concept, but just felt like something was missing. I will be interested to pick it up in stores to see the final artwork though.

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I was expecting something different for this book. Or maybe just higher expectations. I love children’s books but this one just didn’t do anything for me.

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I was thrown off right away when I started reading this because I thought it was a short picture book but it was more of a mini chapter book. The story was all over the place and just didn’t excite me or my children at all and the illustrations were a little lack lustre. There was some silly sheep puns and a few funny lines but overall just wasn’t a book we enjoyed.

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