20 Elves at Bedtime
The night before Christmas Eve,
Santa could not sleep.
Although his reindeer friends suggest he counts sheep to help him doze off, Santa decides to count gold-buttoned elves instead! And so he does…jingling ones, ribboned ones, busy ones… twenty fun-filled elves until they all fall asleep!
Full of delightful illustrations, ‘Twenty Elves at Bedtime’ is the perfect festive treat! Told in rhyme, the story offers plenty of counting practice as, not only does the story encourage counting from one to twenty, but the cover and end papers also show arrays of twenty elves, crying out to be counted! The pictures are full of humour and as each elf is shown with their name and particular talent at the beginning of the book, there is plenty of opportunity for finding each one as the story progresses and for encouraging children to develop their own stories about their favourites. There is plenty of vocabulary to explore and enjoy along the way and one elf is admiring the Northern Lights which is sure to inspire discussions! Teachers might offer children the opportunity to write their own elvish tales, using one of the elves from the book to develop their own ideas- perhaps creating elf shaped books!
The story also lends itself to being part of a bedtime routine- particularly in the build up to Christmas. As the elves begin to tire, the text begins to slow and the pictures show everyone settling down to sleep, ready for the activity of Christmas Eve.
A magical Christmas treat!
20 Elves at Bedtime Mark Sperring, illustrated by Tim Budgen
Scholastic ISBN: 978-0702313592