2. The Grumpus and His Dastardly, Dreadful Christmas Plan
Written and Illustrated by Alex T. Smith
Another Christmas book written and illustrated by Alex T. Smith, and another absolute Christmas classic. Just like his previous two books about Winston the mouse, The Grumpus can be used as an Advent book – reading one chapter a day in December.
You might notice there are 27 chapters instead of 25, but I think if you take into consideration that the first two chapters kind of humorously backtrack and give you a bit of background information, you realize the story perhaps really starts on chapter 3.
The framing and heart of the story may sound familiar, as The Grumpus is remarkably similar to The Grinch – but I think we’ll never tire of Grinchy, Scroogey stories around Christmastime. And I think it’s safe to say this is the most humorous read aloud of all of them.
There is tons of humor infused by Alex T. Smith into this book, with much of it very subtly and expertly coming from the narration. Perhaps one of my very favorite small details is when The Grumpus is referred to as “Mr. The Grumpus.” But really there’s just too much humor to describe – it’s fantastic.
Of course it must be mentioned that this is much larger than your normal picture book, and is quite a bit of text as well. Some may consider it more a chapter book of course, but it’s heavily illustrated, so it gets you into that interesting conversation of what makes a picture book. Just like Winston before it, there are very few pages that aren’t illustrated. You may get 4 pages in a row at most without an illustration, and I’m ruling in favor of picture book in this case – but just keep in mind this is really a month-long read aloud.
As far as the story goes, even though it sounds a bit Grinch-y, it’s actually incredibly original with lots of characters and humorous and exciting side adventures on The Grumpus’s main mission – going to the North Pole to stop Christmas once and for all.
