Walking in a Winter Wonderland

I bought this book to sing to/with my class and was very disappointed to find out that the lyrics in the book are not the traditional version with the part about "Parson Brown" in the first verse and "circus clown" in the second. Instead, something about a "Santa clown" is repeated twice. The illustrations were nice, but I can't stand this version of the song! What even is a "Santa clown?! This is one of my favorite Christmas/winter time songs and there are many renditions of it out there. This is the only one I've ever heard of that even mentions a Santa clown and I feel it was the worst version to use to create a book.

I'm a children's book enthusiast. I studied illustration, I teach young kids and I have 4 of my own. I love this song, but I really feel like the book lets us down.Pictures: The illustration style is attractive but it's very simple imagery for such large pages. Kids get bored when there's very little to look at on each spread. If this were a small board book it might be fine. It just seems like the scale is completely off, which made me feel like they made the book larger than intended just to charge more. Also, when you illustrate you usually make sure to have more details on the pages with more words, since the reader will linger there. The rhythm of this book doesn't make much sense. Every page is simple, but some you flip through in an instant and others you remain on for two sung lines. It makes younger kids think you've fallen asleep at the wheel when you suddenly don't turn the page after several quick transitions.Words: I noticed people complained about adapted lyrics in some reviews. "Maybe later we can build a snowman, and pretend that he is Parson Brown... He'll say are you married we'll say no man, but you can do the job when you're in town" has been replaced with a slightly changed version of the other verse "...and pretend that he's a Santa clown (instead of circus clown)... We'll have lots of fun with mister snowman, till the other kiddies come and knock him down". This is irritating on various levels. First off, I think the omission of the normal first verse is because the illustrations seem to follow one family's day in the snow, and the publisher or whomever didn't want to accidentally imply the parents weren't married. Prudish and easy to fix by featuring a variety of people playing, right? Second, changing circus clown to Santa clown is probably because circuses aren't a thing any more, but what is a Santa clown? You better decide because your children will ask, repeatedly. Third, the lyrics of that second verse are tedious to read to children. Specifically, "till the other kiddies come and knock him down". You have to explain that it's referring to other children not "kitties" which is a much more common word in their minds, and you have to have a talk about those kids who came and wrecked the snowman. Lastly, omitting the lyrics about telling Parson Brown that he can get you wed leaves another segment of lyrics without context (later on we'll conspire, as we dream by the fire, to face unafraid the plans that we've made...) There have been no plans in this version.Long story short, this should be a small board book with original lyrics. If you dont mind paying large hardcover prices for board book content, and you can remember to sing the normal lyrics instead of the replacements, it's fine. It definitely looks cute on the shelf if you're setting up a winter book area in your classroom.

This is a beautiful book, a little larger than your standard picture book with bright, festive illustrations. I was not familiar with the version of the song in the book though, with the lyrics "we can build a snowman, and pretend that he's a Santa clown" rather than the traditional "and pretend that he is Parson Brown". I get that the Santa clown makes more sense for young readers, but the verse is repeated, so it would make sense to me to have included both versions to mix up the text a bit.I love having the song in picture book format though, as my baby loves hearing songs while looking at books.

pictures were great and the idea of making a book out of a song is awesome. But why not stick to the true lyrics? That was slightly disappointing. Otherwise would have been a 5 star product.

Love the illustrations and everything was super cute. My one reason why I did not give five stars is because the wording is different than the song lyrics. I got this book for people to sign up as a guestbook for my child one year birthday party. Since the theme was winter ONEderland. Overall it was really nice :-)

We have a few of these "song" books and love the illustrations and sing/reading to our son. This one is is huge! 😂 It's the biggest children's book I think I've ever seen (the others we've gotten are board books) but it's fun to have a large view of the pictures.

I read this book just like Darlene Love sings it on the Phil Spector album A CHRISTMAS GIFT FOR or TO YOU. I could and have put on the recording and let her sing it. Just like WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD by Louis Armstrong.

I love the illustrations and I think this will be a fun book to read every December, however I find it to be too large to comfortably read to my children. It is also difficult for children to hold by themselves. That's my only negative feedback! I think a smaller size would've been easier to read.

Beautiful illustrations, can imagine this being a big hit around Christmas and snowy times though we bought it on offer in May and my 10 month old loved it. I highly recommend Tim Hopgood books, we also have What a Wonderful World and Moon River. These books are a great way to introduce classic songs to little ears, especially for music teachers.

My 17 year old picks this out every night for me to sing to him. As winter is starting to fade I will be purchasing some others in the series as this has definately become a favourite.

Bought for my son for Xmas as its his favourite Xmas song. So hopefully he will like it

I bought this book after reading an enthusiastic review in one of the Sunday papers and I hoped it would become a family classic for small grandchildren. So far it has not proved popular and it saddens me that some of the words of the song are changed so it loses authenticity.

My grandson loves it