I've Seen Santa by David Bedford

'I've Seen Santa!' is a great book from Little Tiger Press. It's Christmas Eve and Little Bear can't wait for Santa to deliver his presents. "Santa will come just as soon as you go to sleep," Mummy Bear says. But Little Bear doesn't want to go to sleep. He wants to see Santa. Suddenly. . . glug, glug, glug! What's that noise? Someone is downstairs! Will Little Bear really get to see Santa. . ?

This is a lovely story which illustrates the level of intrigue children have about the mysterious 'Santa.' If you are a parent you are sure to have been bombarded with lots of questions about Santa. "Is Santa as big as you?" "Will Santa fit down our chimney?" "Does Santa visit bears all over the world?" What if Santa eats too many mince pies and then gets stuck in the chimney?" The mummy and daddy bear answer the questions with humour which makes the book very funny to read.

"Someone big was standing by the Christmas tree. This time it had to be...." Oh no Mummy bear has been caught. Good job children don't realise the significance of this in the book.

Oh no, Daddy Bear has been caught drinking the milk!

Daddy Bear getting interrogated.

"Is Santa as big as you?" he asked Big Bear. "Nearly" said Big Bear proudly.

There are gorgeous illustrations throughout the book.

My personal favourite picture is all three bears snuggled down together on Christmas Eve enjoying the magic the event always brings. Regardless of who plays Santa.

Weary parents will relate to poor mother and father bear's attempts to play Santa. Eagle eyed and over-excited kids can be a nightmare on Christmas Eve. The book is a clever twist in the way that it can be read by a child without seeing the humour it holds for a parent. Firstly Little Bear catches Big Bear drinking the milk and after giving him a scolding for drinking Santa's milk he returns to bed. Just drifting back to sleep he is awoken by a munching noise and is even more annoyed to find that Big Bear is eating Santa's mince pie. Obviously by this point Mummy Bear feels the need to step in as she sends them both back to bed and takes over the role of Santa. Little Bear then becomes very worried that Santa will be too fat too fit down the chimney after eating all the mince pies the children in world will leave him. So he snuggles down with Daddy bear only to hear more rustling and he finds Mummy bear putting something in the stocking. In the end all three bears end up sleeping downstairs cuddled up together in anticipation of the arrival of Santa. But they never saw Santa... but Santa saw them. It's a lovely ending to the book to keep children off the trail of the part mothers and fathers play.

A very clever book!


Available from www.amazon.co.uk