The Night Before Christmas

About 6.5 minutes at an unhurried pace, including a standard allowance for page turns, pictures and participation, from a word count of 541. Stopping for a longer conversation on every page will add more time.

Ages 3-8 in our testing, which is narrower than the publisher's range. With 2 sentences a page and vocabulary at 4 out of 5, it asks for that much attention span and no more.

Yes - this is one of the few that is still fine on the fortieth reading, which is why it scores 5 out of 5 with us.

It helps that it rhymes. Those three features are what keep a wriggling toddler listening, far more than the subject matter does.

It can. It scores 5 out of 5 with us for holding up to repeat reading, and children tend to learn by heart the books they ask for most, even without a strong refrain.

Not yet. At vocabulary level 4 out of 5 and 2 sentences a page, it is a read-aloud book rather than a first solo read. Read it to them now, and hand it over in a year or two.

We tag it with Christmas, Santa, poetry, reindeer and secular. Those are the threads that actually run through the book, not just the ones on the cover, which is how it earns its place on our themed lists rather than a keyword match.