This evening, our bedtime story was Harvey Slumfenburger’s Christmas Present, by John Burningham, which is one of our library books.

It is Christmas Eve and Father Christmas and his reindeer are very tired after delivering all the presents.  They have something to eat and then Father Christmas tucks up the reindeer in bed.  He gets into his pyjamas and climbs into bed, when he suddenly realises he has one present left in his sack.  So he gets up again, puts his coat on over his pyjamas and sets off on a journey to the home of Harvey Slumfenburger, who lives in a hut at the top of the Roly Poly Mountain, which is far, far away.  He doesn’t want to disturb his reindeer so he must find other ways to travel.

We all enjoyed the story, and especially the illustrations.  It was perfect to read aloud to the little ones, and the big boys enjoyed reading it themselves afterwards.  It’s a lovely book, and a great library discovery – we’ll be looking out for it again next year!