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CM . . . . Volume XVIII Number 16 . . . . December 16, 2011
excerpt:
So begins Troy Townsin�s The Night Before a Canadian Christmas. As you can tell from the excerpt, Townsin has taken for his inspiration the classic poem �A Visit from St. Nicholas�, originally published in 1823. Townsin uses the same basic narrative of the original poem which describes Santa Claus�s visiting a family on Christmas Eve. Townsin updates and customizes the poem by peppering the verses with many distinctly Canadian references. The parents are watching a hockey game on the CBC. Santa�s sled is led by beavers, not reindeer. The beavers� names include Gretzky and Trudeau. Instead of cookies and milk, Santa requests a �double double�. And so on, and so on. While it was mildly diverting to read through the book once to identify all the references, there isn�t much here to warrant a second reading. Most of the references are nothing more than tired stereotypes. I cannot imagine this book appealing to Canadians, and I cannot imagine anyone else in the world wanting to read it either. While not overtly offensive, I found this book passive aggressively offensive, which is in some ways even worse. Townsin appears to have hit on his muse one too many times. His previous books include A Moose in a Maple Tree, which retells �The Twelve Days of Christmas�, and �Canadian Jingle Bells which, you guessed it, takes the lyrics to �Jingle Bells� and inserts obligatory Canadian references. I would skip this one and spend time with the original poem instead.
Not recommended. Trevor Lockhart is a public librarian in Winnipeg, MB.
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Jennifer Harrington�s illustrations are simple and bright, but they do not seem to fit the mood and tone of the book at all. The characters� faces are devoid of expression, and the art has a �cut and paste� quality to it that doesn�t connect with this reviewer. There is a glossy, commercial sheen on every page, which isn�t surprising, since Harrington is a graphic designer who runs a company that specializes in corporate branding.