Blog Tour: The Christmas Play Rehearsal By Sue Wickstead

December is finally here and for me it signals the start of my attempt to complete Blogmas – wish me luck! Day 1 and for today’s’ post I’m taking part in a fabulous book tour for children’s book The Christmas Play Rehearsal by Sue Wickstead. Massive thanks go to Rachel and of course Sue for allowing me to take part in this festive tour!

About The Book

It is Christmas time, and the school has been getting ready to perform their Nativity play.

With lines learnt and songs to be sung, it is time for the dress rehearsal. The teacher knows there might be a few problems to sort out, but at least they will know what to improve on or change along the way.

Review

Every parent will be familiar with the Christmas Nativity, performed in schools across the country, but what about the parts you don’t get to see? This wonderful children’s book has shifted the focus from the (hopefully) polished performance we get to see to the dress rehearsal, the part that sends cold shivers down the spines of teachers everywhere!

Offering a different take on traditional Nativity story books, Sue Wickstead has cleverly woven in the key details of the story amongst the anticipated hitches that invariably happen at the rehearsal. Every page brings a new mishap and plenty of giggles to be had for kids and parents alike.

I’ve always admired the dedication of the teachers when it comes to the organisation of the Christmas play and with over twenty years of teaching experience under her belt author Sue will have done her fair share. I genuinely have no idea where they find the energy or patience required to direct and keep all the children in check – they should all be made saints! This story gives what I imagine is just a small insight into the things that can go wrong, however the show must go on and with a little gentle guidance from the teachers it all ends well.

Leo and I both loved this book and I felt the illustrations really added to our enjoyment of the story. Bright and colourful they depict the humour perfectly. giving us plenty to talk about as we read together. The book is 36 pages long, however there isn’t much writing on each page which makes it ideal for those early readers with a little experience, especially with its large, clear font.

This book would be ideal to share with children who have a Christmas play in the pipeline or would just make a wonderful festive read to share over the holiday season. If you’re stuck on stocking filler ideas this fabulous tale would make the perfect gift – you can NEVER go wrong gifting a book!

About The Author

I am a teacher and an author and have currently written six children’s picture books with a bus theme.

For over 20 years, alongside my teaching career, I worked with a Children’s Charity, The Bewbush Playbus Association, which led me to write a photographic history book about it.

I soon found that many children had never been on a bus before, let alone a ‘Playbus’ and they wanted to know more. I decided to write a fictional tale about the bus, his number plate JJK261 gave him his name.

‘Jay-Jay the Supersonic Bus,’ came out in print in 2014. It is the story behind the original bus and is his journey from a scrap-yard to being changed into a playbus for children to play in. From Fact to fiction the bus journey continued.

This story has now been followed by five more picture books.

I also undertake events and author bookings and love to share the story. There are also a few more stories in the writing process, with links to real events and buses.

The story has been read in many schools in the south-East of England, where I teach as a cover teacher, it is always well received and certainly different.

Author Links: Website – Twitter – Facebook

The Christmas Play Rehearsal is available to purchase from Amazon