During his Presidential 2008 campaign, former Arkansas governor Mike
Huckabee made a generally positive impression on me, so it piqued my
curiosity when two Christmas books bearing his name hit the shelves of
the bookstore where I worked. While I have yet to read his collection of
stories for adults, I recently took his picture book, Can’t Wait Till Christmas, out of the library.
Huckabee writes with a folksy, down-home charm as he relates an
incident from his own childhood. I got a chuckle out of the dedication,
in which he relates two instances of his sister Pat engaging in
activities that were dangerous to his health and well-being. Ah, the joy
of older sisters! Clearly, however, there is great affection and humor
between the two of them, and this is the pair of siblings at the heart
of the story.
The tale Huckabee tells is not a new one.
Countless stories have mentioned how hard it is for children to wait for
Christmas, and many have featured children who decide to peek at their
presents, only to regret it later. Still, this is an engaging story that
seems more so because it is true. While the story is written in the
third person, we’re getting a first-hand account from a guy who recalls
what it was like to be fiendishly excited for Christmas, to want a
football as badly as Ralphie wanted a BB gun in A Christmas Story,
to be so fixated that avoiding the temptation of an early peek seemed
impossible. Reading of his later remorse carries more of an impact.
Huckabee paints a picture of a happy family: Mom, Dad, a brother and
sister, a cat and a dog. The parents seem pretty easy-going,
good-naturedly putting up with all of Mike’s strong hints about what he
wants for Christmas. Pat is a bit less patient, but she’s not quite a
Lucy Van Pelt-style crabapple, and as much as she wants to play by the
rules, she can’t help getting caught up in Mike’s excitement. It’s fun
to see these siblings interact with each other and reminds me a bit of
the dynamic between me and the brother closest to my age. I’m sure a lot
of siblings can relate to this relationship.
Jed Henry’s
illustrations are fairly realistic but with a cartoonish edge. The
humans look slightly more realistic than the pets, which appear on
nearly every page, but the pictures are consistently artistically
appealing. I especially like the spectacle of the tree with all the
presents, each wrapped with a different style of paper, underneath.
Their tree is much more sedate than any we’ve ever erected in my house,
but the plain gold and silver balls alongside the colored lights have a
very elegant effect. I can’t help think the parents were almost asking
for this to happen by putting those presents out two whole weeks early;
perhaps they saw it as a teaching moment. In any case, the lesson comes
across well.
Early in the book, Mike’s mom insists that being
patient makes the experience of opening a gift sweeter. By the end of
the book, Mike understands what she means, and perhaps other kids who Can’t Wait Till Christmas will get it as well and be less inclined to peep at those presents ahead of time.
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