Well, the stores have been playing Christmas music since Halloween, so I suppose it’s well past time to review a Christmas book. Little Star, written by Anthony DeStefano and illustrated by Mark Elliott (WaterBrook, 2010), tells the story of the Christmas star. This gentle picture book answers the question so many children ask, “Where is the Christmas star now?” The Christmas star in this picture book is like the Little Engine that Could. Little Star...
Move over Beatrix Potter because Little Rabbit is one cute bunny. I just finished Little Rabbit Goes to School (Peachtree, 2004) and really for me, it’s all about the illustrations. The story’s cute, yes, but this is a book I’d get for the illustrations. The Little Rabbit books tell about typical joys and fears of childhood: the excitement of a birthday, getting lost at “Rabbit World,” not wanting to share, the desire to be...
In an ideal world, we’d all have hours to sit on the couch reading books to our children. In an ideal world, we’d also have children who are always cheerful and obedient and never have problems with sleeping through the night, toilet-training, wrecking the car, or getting a full-ride scholarship to college either. But since we don’t live in an ideal world (it sounds a bit Orwellian anyway), here’s a website I just...
Ok, just can’t resist doing a few more Christmas books. These are some unique ones I’m partial to. Winter Lights: A Season in Poems & Quilts (by Anna Grossnickle Hines. Greenwillow, 2005). Stunning contemporary quilts illustrate this book, most of them in intense, vivid colors and bold patterns that really appeal to kids and adults alike. Like the title says, each poem and quilt celebrates winter light: sun sparkling on icicles, Christmas lights, aurora...
One of our favorite Christmas traditions (and my favorite one—fun AND easy) is our basket of Christmas picture books. A giant basket loaded with Christmas picture books sits right next to the tree. The books get packed away with the ornaments and decorations and only come out at Christmas. And they only come out after the kids have decorated the tree. Otherwise, they drop everything and plop down on the couches to read (I...
Lemony Snicket’s picture book, The Lump of Coal (HarperCollins, 2008), has been released for Christmas. Christmas is a time of miracles, and as Lemony Snicket says, “Miracles are like pimples, because once you start looking for them you find more than you ever dreamed you’d see.” (The book is worth buying for that sentence alone.) Although not quite as dire as Lemony Snicket’s best-selling Series of Unfortunate Events (it is Christmas after all), The Lump...
