REVIEW: One Wild Christmas by Nicholas Oldland

Summary and Review


Three friends – a bear, a moose, and a beaver – prepare to celebrate Christmas when they realize they forgot to get a tree. Once they find a perfect pine, Bear won’t let them chop it down.

This is an adorable Christmas story that is part of the Life in the Wild series. There’s a small amount of text on each page, and fantastic illustrations that do some of the storytelling heavy-lifting. I enjoyed the humor in this, and the resolution makes this a fun read-aloud for Christmas. This was the first book in the series that I read, and I got such a kick out of it I ended up reading all of them. You can see some of my other reviews at the links above.

Rating: ♥♥♥♥*

*♥♥♥♥ – Great! Might re-read

REVIEW: Life in the Wild by Nicholas Oldland

[I received a free electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Kids Can Press in exchange for an honest review. (I also read 5 of the stories in single-story form from the library.) All opinions are my own.]

Summary and Review


Six stories from the Life in the Wild series are collected here in one volume. You can read my reviews of two of them at the links provided.

Big Bear Hug (♥♥♥♥)

Make the Moose Out of Life – A reserved moose learns to embrace adventure and try new things when he gets shipwrecked. This was cute. I liked that Moose was driven by his own desires to change rather than being cajoled or shamed into being someone he is not. He recognizes his nervousness but also tries things until he finds activities he likes. (♥♥♥♥)

The Busy Beaver (♥♥♥♥½)

Up the Creek  – Three best friends who disagree a lot try to go on a canoe trip together. This is another fun and funny tale of these three friends. This includes some great examples of ways to learn to get along for the good of the outing. (♥♥♥♥)

Walk on the Wild Side – Three friends climbing a mountain discover it can be more fun to enjoy the journey rather than race to be the first one done. This is another cute story with a nice lesson. I love that none of these stories include shaming. There are just experiences and learning from them along with friends who decide to work at being better friends. (♥♥♥♥)

Hockey in the Wild – This is the one story I only read because I received the ARC of the collection. And for me, this was the weakest story in the set. It just didn’t click for me.