Joy to the World: 25 Days of Christmas on Sesame Street

PreS-K–This Sesame Street tie-in concept book explores the many facets of Christmas joy, with each page listing a new example of joyful pursuits, including giving gifts, decorating a tree, making cards, and sharing milk and cookies. The Muppets traverse snowy landscapes to go sledding, build a snowman, and sing carols; indoors, they wrap presents, play board games, and share tender moments. Alongside these pleasurable family activities, the book offers positive examples of community service, including donating clothes and goods and participating in a charity walk; the back matter contains a list of further suggestions. While entirely good-natured, the text is locked into an unwavering structure—each sentence begins with “joy is”—that soon begins to grow monotonous, making shared read-alouds a chore. The Sesame Street Muppets, designed to be brought to life in the hands of puppeteers, are a poor choice for depicting true depth of feeling in the static medium of illustrations. Identical bland smiles worn by the characters on every page create an emotional dullness, mirrored in the flat texture of the inconsistently shaded digital-style art.