The Original Elf on the Shelf Was a Cobbler

The Elves And The Shoemaker

Retold by Jim LaMarche

Illustrated by Jim LaMarche

Chronicle books, 2003

25 pages

Traditional

            Choosing this book was easy. I personally loved this story as a little girl, and when I saw the eyes on the little elves on the cover of this particular book, I had to read the story once again.  The story is about a poor shoemaker and his wife who had just enough leather to make one last pair of shoes.  The next morning when they awoke, they found a perfect pair of shoes.  The shoemaker and his wife were shocked and happy.  We all know as adults what happens in this story, but that small bright-eyed little one tugging at your leg doesn’t. Enjoy the story yourself again.  Enjoy it even more as you share it with a child.

            The cartoon illustrations are done with acrylic washes and colored pencil on Arches water color paper.  The type set is Guardi and Brandywine which gives the book a feeling of being written a hundred years ago.   This book has both types of illustrations that are on one page with text and a vignette on the other. They take up both pages with the text on top of them.  This gives the book an old-world feel.

            This book would be good for kindergarten through third grade.  The book has beautiful illustrations and is easy to read.  Younger readers will love to have this book read to them.  This book would be good for a history lesson on how life used to be when we went to specialty shops to buy things instead of Wal-Mart.  This book would also be fitting for a Language Arts lesson with a good story rewrite from a child’s point of view.  This would be a good book for character education, too with the theme being how to treat other people and to help those without being asked.

This book has not won any honors.