BY Summer,

One of my favorite things about Christmas is traditions! We’re currently still building our family’s traditions, like our 2YO and 4YO have a child’s tree surrounded in books instead of presents. A friend shared this tradition with us and we have a Christmas story collection of all sorts of books. We just added two new titles: Disney’s A Magical Christmas and Flicka, Ricka, Dicka and Their New Skates.

Disney’s A Magical Christmas – This is a NEW book from Disney to help celebrate Christmas. A Magical Christmas is designed for ages 3-7. Disney’s A Magical Christmas is a 16 page book that contains thick, board book like, pages; each 2 page spread has a new poem, new movie picture with your child’s favorite characters, and a lenticular with two different holiday scenes. Within the pages of Disney’s A Magical Christmas you’ll find the movies Cars, Lady and the Tramp, Finding Nemo, Mickey’s One Upon A Christmas, Little Mermaid, Mickey’s Christmas Carol, Wall-E, and Beauty and the Beast.

My two boys love this new addition to their library. They love to play with the lenticulars from the front cover to the last page. The lenticulars were what actually attracted me to this book as well. However I feel their ages aren’t correct (3-7YO), my guess on the ages is so that younger children doesn’t pull off the lenticular switching picture patches.

Thank you also to Disney and their PR company for sending an extra copy for donation to a local school that could use some extra help. Don’t forget to give when you can.

My Mom Start Review Grade of Disney’s A Magical Christmas Book: A-

Flicka, Ricka, Dicka and Their New Skates – This is a reprint of a 1950’s favorite. I know the names are different, but that’s because this book is from Swedish author Maj Lindman. My version has paper dolls of the girls, their staking outfits and their dog, Mike. This is great for some kids, but mine could care less about the paper dolls, BUT they did enjoy the book. My 4YO found it very engaging! Flicka, Ricka, Dicka and Their New Skates is a book with real problems that have real solutions.

SPOILER ALERT: In this book the girls visit their aunt and uncle who live by a lake. They have new ice skates and on the ice they meet a little boy, Bertie, who gets himself into trouble by falling through thin ice. The triplets save the Bertie; as a thank you gift Bertie’s family treats the girls to a cocoa and the following day a new doll to each girl and a bone for Mike.

Flicka, Ricka, Dicka and Their New Skates book is so cute and takes me back to my love for Christmas movie classics like “White Christmas”. Though this book is fiction, it could be non-fiction and I like discussing the book with my 4YO. I’ve discussed with him: how the girls only get one gift each, How simply their tree is decorated in the illustration, also they have candles on their tree and we talk about why we don’t have candles on out tree and what we have instead, how they are approved by an adult to go out on an iced lake and why, we talked about the harmony between the siblings and his own sibling relationship with his 2YO brother, what he thinks Bertie might do in the story, what he thinks the girl should do when Bertie is on the thin ice, what should the girls do when Bertie is in the water with Mike, does he think the triples did the right thing to help Bertie, and why it’s important to be thankful. Help your little ones think critically through books too; this not only increases your child’s though processes but helps further literacy AND writing skills.

Other Flick, Ricka, Dicka books include: and The Big Red Hen, and The Little Dog, and The New Dotted Dresses, and The Strawberries, and The Three Kittens, and Their New Friend, Go To The Market, Bake a Cake and more.

Though my 2YO will listen to Flicka, Ricka, Dicka and Their New Skates, my 4YO is the one who gets it. We all have been enjoying this adventure of Flicka, Ricka, and Dicka getting skates and learning about ice.

My Mom Start Review Grade of Flicka, Ricka, Dicka and Their New Skates Book: A+