The Christmas Cookie Crook is a beautifully illustrated tale of Santa's stolen cookies with a very welcome new twist - one of kindness, giving and empathy for others. This is the perfect book to give to your favorite toddler around Thanksgiving so they can read it over and over again because I guarantee this will be a holiday favorite.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I think the author had a good idea behind this book, focusing on Christmas being about giving. However, it was poorly executed.

For the most part, I enjoyed the pictures, but that's about it. The rhythm of the story starts off as if it's going to rhyme, but it doesn't. The sentences don't flow well most of the time, and the story is confusing and doesn't make sense. The cookies have been stolen, but the illustration shows three cookies on a plate with bites taken out of them. Santa needs the cookies, seemingly to stay awake, but then it's okay in the second half if he doesn't have them because his reindeer do the work, so why did he need the cookies in tbe first place? A little boy is asked why he made a mess, and he blames it on the snowman, but what mess is being asked about, we're meant to be looking for missing cookies? It turns out a mouse ate part of each cookie because it was hungry, which lines up with the illustration of the partly eaten cookies at the beginning. How can you get back cookies that have already been eaten? Who is being told to "take some cheese"? Presumably the mouse, based on the illustration. But if the mouse has eaten the cookies, why does it need cheese?

I even asked my partner to read it to get his opinion. He was just as confused, pointing out that the middle is all over the place and doesn't make sense.

If the story is confusing to adults and so many questions are raised, I can only imagine a child will be even more confused and have many more questions. Unfortunately, this is not a book I would choose to read to or with children, nor would I recommend it to others.

I love holiday books. I have high expectations for them though because they are mainly read once a year. This book was just ok for me. The illustrations were cute and engaging. The story was a little disjointed and confusing.

A cute and short story.
The illustrations fell short, very computer generated and generic for my taste. Also not crazy about the cats name, maybe a typo, but Sprinkle sounds better than Spinkle.

This book reminds readers to celebrate the spirit of Christmas.

The art and story felt a bit uninspired, but it's an easy, quick read for the holiday season.