These heartwarming stories full of holiday wishes,
experiences and preparations can help you add some lovely traditions in your
own family setting. Merry holidays to
you!
Red and Lulu
by
Matt Tavares
A cardinal
couple, Red, the male bird, and Lulu, the female, live in an enormous evergreen
tree beside a small house. The tree is cut down while Lulu is still in the nest
in the tree. Red follows the truck into the city but cannot keep up.
He searches
for days with no success, but finally discovers the tree, decorated for
Christmas, in the midst of confusing city buildings. When he flies to their
favorite branch, Lulu is there!!
After
Christmas when the tree is removed, the two relocate to a nearby park. Every
year the two birds return to what turns out to be the Rockefeller Center to
enjoy the decorations and the singing around a new tree each Christmas.
The lovely
watercolor and gouache paintings have qualities that make the reader think of
photographs. Snow and holiday lights glisten and make the illustrations glow. A
variety of perspectives lend movement to match the pace of the text.
Back matter
includes information about the Christmas tree tradition, begun in 1931, along
with the fact that each year the Christmas tree is recycled by Habitat for
Humanity to build homes for families in need. This is an especially beautiful
story for the holiday season. And a perfect accompaniment to David Rubel’s The
Carpenter’s Gift, which is also a story about the traditions surrounding
the Rockefeller Christmas tree.
Candlewick Press,
$17.99
Interest Level:
Kindergarten – Grade 2
A Christmas for Bear
by Bonnie Becker
illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton
In another Bear
and Mouse book from the Becker and Denton team, Bear invites his friend Mouse
over for a Christmas party (although he knows almost nothing about it.) As a
part of their growing friendship grumpy Bear prepares pickles, poetry and a
present. But whenever Mouse mentions presents Bear only wants to talk about
pickles and poetry.
Every time
Bear leaves the living room for pickles, cheese, cookies and tea, “small and
gray and bright-eyed Mouse” disappears. First, Mouse is under Bear’s bed. Next,
Bear discovers Mouse in the hall closet. Finally, Mouse scampers “out from
behind” the beautifully decorated Christmas tree when Bear bellows.
The
watercolor, ink and gouache paintings are bright and warmly filled with holiday
decorations. The expressions on the two characters faces and the body language
and movement match the text as the exuberant Mouse becomes quieter as Bear
appears to get crankier. The difference in size of the best friends is
carefully demonstrated as Mouse discovers his present and uncovers his.
This just
right read-aloud is a delightful Christmas Eve storytime choice.
Candlewick Press,
$16.99
Interest Level:
Pre-Kindergarten – Grade 2
Santa, Please Bring
Me a Gnome
by An Swerts & Elin van Lindenhuizen
Tess asks her Granny to write her
letter to Santa. In it Tess says, “You don’t have to bring me any toys this
year. The only thing I want is a real gnome.”
She asks Grandpa to make a small
bed, table, chair, etc. for a gnome. Both grandparents are delightfully
supportive and help Tess prepare. Readers share Tess’s thoughts as she imagines
taking her gnome to school and dance class, sitting on the swing, doing crafts,
eating together.
When Christmas morning arrives,
Tess discovers the prepared dollhouse is empty with all the furniture gone!
Sunny watercolors illustrate Tess’s
hopes and impossible wishes. The round faces of Tess and her family are a
contrast to the homeless hamster who is across the room in glass box filled
with sawdust. Beside it a letter from Santa explains that although “Gerard the
Gnome was looking forward to coming,” he thought of Tess when Flannel the
hamster needed a home.
Tess’s first response is the
capstone of the story: “How kind of Gerard and Santa.” This sweet conclusion is
a joyful ending to the story as well as the beginning of a real friendship.
Sometimes the Christmas expectations can be met in unexpectedly charming ways.
Clavis, $17.95
Interest Level:
Pre-Kindergarten – Grade 1
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