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	<title>Great Books for Children &#187; Christmas</title>
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		<title>Christmas on Thanksgiving</title>
		<link>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/750/christmas-on-thanksgiving?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=christmas-on-thanksgiving</link>
		<comments>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/750/christmas-on-thanksgiving#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 19 Nov 2010 18:01:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Smoore</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Christmas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Picture Books]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://greatbooksforchildren.com/?p=750</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Well, the stores have been playing Christmas music since Halloween, so I suppose it&#8217;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 may be ignored by other big, shiny stars, but on the night of Jesus’ birth, Little Star is the only star that recognizes Jesus is a king.  Baby Jesus may be little, but he won’t be forgotten. Not by Little Star.  “Trying as hard as he could, he used all his strength and might to reach out with his light toward the earth.  . . . All through the long, cold night Little Star burned as brightly as he could so the baby Jesus could be warm.” Little Star gives his life for baby Jesus, just as baby Jesus gives his life for all mankind.  This Christian picture book reminds readers that Christ, and Christmas, are all about love.]]></description>
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		<title>&#8220;Little Rabbit&#8221; Books by Harry Horse</title>
		<link>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/265/little-rabbit-books-by-harry-horse?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=little-rabbit-books-by-harry-horse</link>
		<comments>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/265/little-rabbit-books-by-harry-horse#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:38:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Smoore</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Babies/Toddlers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christmas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Picture Books]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://greatbooksforchildren.com/?p=265</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[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&#8217;s all about the illustrations.  The story&#8217;s cute, yes, but this is a book I&#8217;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 &#8220;Rabbit World,&#8221; not wanting to share, the desire to be &#8220;big.&#8221;  Little Rabbit Goes to School begins, &#8220;When Little Rabbit woke up, he knew that it was a special day.  Today was his first day of school.&#8221;  But it&#8217;s the illustrations that enchant.  Little Rabbit with his thirteen or so siblings in their snug rabbit house at the foot of a giant tree.  And Little Rabbit is pretty much irresistible in his little jumpsuit complete with hat shaped like bunny ears.  He wears them 24/7, and it&#8217;s a good thing he does.  Otherwise we&#8217;d get him mixed up with all the other bunnies hopping around on these pages.  Just as mischievous and charming as his literary ancestor, Little Rabbit is a 21st century Peter Rabbit, and every bit as winsome. (And winsome is the perfect word [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Online Audio Books</title>
		<link>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/253/online-audio-books?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=online-audio-books</link>
		<comments>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/253/online-audio-books#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 21 Feb 2009 13:04:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Smoore</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Babies/Toddlers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christmas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Early Readers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Picture Books]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[  In an ideal world, we&#8217;d all have hours to sit on the couch reading books to our children.  In an ideal world, we&#8217;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&#8217;t live in an ideal world (it sounds a bit Orwellian anyway), here&#8217;s a website I just discovered.  It might be a good option for those times you can&#8217;t&#8211;or don&#8217;t want (perhaps because you are engrossed in a novel of your own?!?)&#8211;to sit and read with your kiddos. www.speakaboos.com is a website that has read-aloud books for kids.  You can listen to the books for free or buy and download them, just like Itunes, for 99 cents a piece.  Stories are read by &#8220;celebrity&#8221; authors like Kelly Ripa (sorry, no Zac Ephron yet).  The words are printed at the bottom of each page,  so kids can follow along as the story is read.  Great for those who are learning how to read.  The website has several Arthur books, including one read by author Marc Brown, folk and fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and holiday stories.  [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Smoore Favorite Christmas Books!</title>
		<link>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/81/smoore-favorite-christmas-books?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=smoore-favorite-christmas-books</link>
		<comments>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/81/smoore-favorite-christmas-books#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 26 Dec 2008 03:18:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Smoore</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Babies/Toddlers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christmas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Picture Books]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://greatbooksforchildren.com/?p=81</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[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 &#38; 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 borealis, Menorah and Kwanzaa candles, flickering farolitos.  Here’s one of the poems called It’s Time:    We’ve been working. We’ve been waiting. We have been anticipating. Make it dark, as dark can be. It’s time to light our Christmas tree!   When I first looked at this book, I thought the illustrations were done by a graphic artist.  Not until I reread the book did I realize that the artwork is quilting!  The back of the book also has three pages where the author/artist explains how she creates her quilts.  I bought this book for my mom (an amazing appliqué quilter).  Not only does this book have fun poems (my favorite is Lights Out, a poem about reading under the covers with a flashlight), it helps readers appreciate [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Favorite Christmas Books</title>
		<link>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/62/favorite-christmas-books?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=favorite-christmas-books</link>
		<comments>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/62/favorite-christmas-books#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 17 Dec 2008 20:38:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Smoore</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Babies/Toddlers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christmas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Picture Books]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://greatbooksforchildren.com/?p=62</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[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 learned that the hard way this year).   We have thirty or so Christmas books and add a new one each year.  By the way, you can always buy inexpensive Christmas books from the kiddos’ school book order.  If you don’t have an elementary school-age kid, borrow one.   My kids each have one or two books that they love the most and that they pull out first each and every year.   Here are a few of their favorites.  And remember, “a book is a present you can open again and again!”   Follow the Star (retold by Allia Zobel-Nolen, ill. Tracey Moroney.  Christmas Bible Playbooks, 1999).  This is a small board book (about 5&#215;5 inches) with pages shaped like buildings in Bethlehem.  The short, simple [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<title>A Lump of Coal for Christmas</title>
		<link>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/22/a-lump-of-coal-for-christmas?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=a-lump-of-coal-for-christmas</link>
		<comments>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/22/a-lump-of-coal-for-christmas#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:13:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Smoore</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Christmas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Picture Books]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://greatbooksforchildren.com/?p=22</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Lemony Snicket&#8217;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 of Coal bears Lemony’s trademark style.  Illustrations are by Brett Helquist who also illustrated A Series of Unfortunate Events.  If you’ve never seen a lump of coal sporting a suit and bowtie, you’ll be amazed at how spiffy one can look.  And this lump of coal “who for the sake of argument could think, talk, and move itself around” ventures out in search of his dream—life as an artist.    I think picture books make great gifts for grownups.  The Lump of Coal is a fun choice.  It’s witty and ironic and full of everyday and not so everyday miracles. Hmmm . . . come to think of it, I might buy it for my brother . . . he just started his own business . . [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
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