“The Burpee Bears – A Christmas Adventure” is a new seasonal picture book by the celebrity fitness guru Joe Wicks. The story of the book revolves around the Burpee Bears getting ready for Christmas and the arrival of Granny Bear for Christmas.

It’s snowing incessantly in the area, but the Burpee Bears have fun playing and doing exercises in the snow, in a nod to the author’s main job. However, it snows so much that Granny Bear cannot get to the Burpee Bears house for Christmas so the family set off on an adventure to bring Christmas to Granny. Even Santa gives a hand when the family gets into difficulty on the journey.

With more than a hint of the “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” book, this book should appeal to both adults reading to younger children and to young children on the road to reading for themselves. There’s plenty of repetition (“Are we ready, are we steady ….”), onomatopoeia (“Flip Flap”; “Peek-a-Boo”; “Swish, swish”; “Stomp, stomp, stomp”; “Tramp, tramp, tramp”) and words/phrases in larger bold print for children to focus on.

The illustrations by Paul Howard add beautifully to the story, with the Burpee family looking alive and animated.

An interesting addition to this particular picture book, and again a nod to what the author is best known for, is the inclusion at the rear of the book of Winter Warm-Up exercises, Calm Your Mind relaxing exercises and Fun Recipes. For the exercises, the illustrator shows the Burpee Bears performing a variety of exercises for children to copy. The recipes are also something that will give the book an added way of parents/teachers sharing the book with their children/pupils.

This book should be available in all good book stores.