A Puppy’s First Christmas

Holly Webb's A Puppy's First Christmas is a cosy, snowy story for 6 year olds about a girl, her chocolate Labrador puppy and a very full house.

What happens

Aria has only had Jackson for a couple of months, but she can't imagine home without him. She's already got a present for him, a dog toy chosen just for his first Christmas. Then her cousins, her aunt and uncle and her grandparents all arrive to stay. That's eleven people and one very bouncy puppy!

Aria finds noise and crowds hard. At the school Christmas party she has to slip out into the corridor because it's all too loud and too bright. So a houseful of excited cousins is a lot for her. And it's a lot for Jackson too.

Her littlest cousin Hannah wants to dress him up as a reindeer in tinsel antlers (he's really not keen). Gran thinks the fuss about chocolate being bad for dogs is nonsense. Wherever Aria and Jackson go for a bit of peace, somebody follows them.

Some parts are told from Jackson's side. He doesn't understand why somebody snapped at him to be quiet, or why the new tree in the living room tastes so spiky. Those bits are lovely. Young readers get to see the whole busy Christmas through a puppy's eyes.

Then it snows! Real snow that sticks, and Jackson has never seen it before. He bites it, jumps back in surprise and then zooms round the garden like a little snowplough. It's one of the happiest scenes in the book. But when he leaps for a snowball and knocks Hannah over into the snow, Gran is cross all over again.

If you've got a reader who feels a bit wobbly when the house fills up at Christmas, Aria will feel very familiar. She loves her family. She just needs a quiet corner (and a warm puppy on her feet) now and then.

It's gentle and warm, and the worries are small ones that feel very real. A lovely one to read in the run-up to Christmas.

What to read next

If Jackson wins them over, The Frightened Puppy is another Holly Webb dog story. Avery is nine and on holiday in a cottage with a river at the bottom of the garden, where she keeps spotting a nervous little puppy all on her own.