The Joy of Giving Book

The beginning was uninteresting, what with lines like "They were Christmas shopping and Christmas decorating and Christmas everything." 

I was surprised Sister and Brother were happy to be the camel. Usually the animal is the worst part, especially for the one that has to be the rear. Kind of funny how the camel had button eyes and eye holes in the humps for them to see out of. 

Odd how much explaining there was going on. They "wore long robes, crowns, and fake beards. They followed the Christmas star made of foil-covered cardboard that hung above the stage."
We know they're fake beards. The word "wearing" makes it clear that they're fake. 

Things picked up during the rehearsal. One of the wise bears had a loose front tooth (tho the pic showed him with only one front tooth, which implied he was missing teeth) so he could pronounce things well. "A thtar! A thtar!" he cried. "I thee a thtar!"

It turned into a silly catastrophe though and lost charm. It was hard for Sister and Brother to see out of the costume-even though there were two eye holes for them both-and Sister knocked over the palm tree display, then, with no explanation, all 3 of the wise bears tripped. The picture showed Sister stepping on one's robe, which wasn't said.

Bearbie doll sounded so stupid. It would have been nice if the authors created their own world instead of ripping off the human world and just putting the word bear in place of another.
It was weird that Mama wore a purple vest and yellow trim over her usual blue polka dot dress, because it really clashed.

They each had $10 from grandparents to spend on presents for others. But they only bought each other something and not anyone else. And they both wanted to only spend a little and have money left over for themselves. Brother wanted a model plane and Sister a Bearbie doll. She bought him the plane and he got her an outfit for the doll. Mama noticed the spirit of giving was lacking and Papa said to let them figure that out themselves. 

Weird how Mary had a horse instead of a donkey.

The story morphed into the story of Jesus, so the book became bogged down. It had a lot going on. The joy of giving, the play and rehearsal, and then the story of Jesus's birth. They should have just tackled one element. 

And it was so ridiculous how after the play someone in the audience got up and started singing Holy Night. Could they have thrown one more element into this thing? Who even gets up and starts singing after a play? That was the performance, the audience doesn't get up and do their own. 
And for some strange reason Sister and Brother started tearing up bcuz something about that--not sure what--prompted them to realize the joy of giving. 

It was cute how they went to each other's presents first and Brother said "From one end of the camel to the other" as he gave her the present from him.

It was odd how the band was collecting money for the needy in a black cauldron, also hanging from a tripod of sticks like it was going to cook something.

Idk what the purpose of having Honey put the quarter in was for. Sister, after her and Brother gave over all of the extra money they had into the pot, found a quarter in her pocket--gosh would the story just end already--and held it out. Honey, who didn't own the quarter, reached for it and then toddled over to the pot and put it in. What is right about her taking someone else's quarter and donating it? It takes nothing to donate someone else's money. Seems like a bad lesson for her to learn, and a bad act for her to do. And what was even more annoying was that only then do the bears in the band stop and say Merry Christmas. They didn't say it to Brother and Sister, who donated all of their money, but they stopped for this little toddler who took her sister's money-which was only a quarter-and put it in. So stupid.

And then the story ended just like that. The bear family responded with Merry Christmas and that was that. I didn't enjoy this at all because there were too many things going on, none of which I thought was interesting.