Just Right (for Christmas)

One of the special pleasures of Christmas is the joy of giving. Just Right captures this perfectly (much better than a certain department store’s Christmas TV advert).

The story opens on Christmas Eve. Snow is falling and the king is strolling round the market.  He sees a roll of bright red cloth, just the thing to make a grand cloak for the princess. The king’s maids snip and sew and snip and sew and by lunchtime they’ve made a beautiful long cloak. The scraps of material are put on the back step, where Jenny the kitchen-maid finds them. She takes them home, snips and sews, snips and sews, to make, by tea-time, a smart red jacket for her ma.Again, the scraps are left on the step where Bertie Badger, trotting past, finds them, and takes them home to make a hat for his dad.

And so the story continues, so that by night time Samuel Squirrel has made a pair of gloves for his wife and little Milly Mouse has been able to make a warm red scarf for Billy. Of course, everyone is delighted with their presents, each one so red and soft, and just how Christmas should feel. In the final spread, we see all the characters, decked out in their bright red gifts, enjoying a Christmas day skating party.

There’s lots of fun to be had from the rhythmic text and the jolly repetition, but the story is really carried by Rosalind Beardshaw’s warm, merry illustrations. The characters brim with Christmas cheer, full of action, and the flashes of bright red cloth dance before us across the pages.

This charming book is certain to be a favourite for many Christmases to come.