New Holiday Books plus One Old Favorite

              Visit Jen at Teach MentorTexts and Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders to discover books you'll love!  Thanks to Jen, Kellee, and Ricki who share their own reading lives and support this meme, too.

        I have been reading many books, but choose today to share some wonderful Christmas/holiday books that I have received thanks to Candlewick Press. I know that some of you have read and enjoyed the books below, but perhaps there are a few you don't know. 

      This is a small accordion-style, pop-up book that shows the first six days on the front folds, then it should be turned to view the final days. Small pop-outs of the main “gift” objects with lots of details in the background by Graham Baker-Smith’s beautiful art behind are special to see. The bonus is that it has a slipcase that makes a nice home for the book!
      




       How Bonny Becker knows how to create the sweetest story with her text and her most congenial characters is a mystery many might wish to know, but she does, every time. Here is Bear about to give his first Christmas party, and here is Mouse, honored guest, ready to open presents! Bear insists that’s silly, that the party is for good food, like pickles, and a long and serious poem. Oh, the expression on Mouse’s face. But he doesn’t give up! Each time Bear leaves for the kitchen for another party treat, Mouse scurries off to look for, you know, presents. Bear finds Mouse and gives his most stern look and Mouse returns it with chagrin. This is a book that’s a smile from the opening page all the way to a bigger one at the end. 

      All the pieces are here to press out and create a nice Nativity scene that young children can play with while learning the story. There are ‘how-tos” if needed. Added are how to make an Advent calendar and a Christmas star, a brief version of the Nativity story and the lyrics to several popular Christmas songs like “Away In A Manger”.

        It's going to be a fun afternoon or evening because it's time to "Pick a Pine Tree" as Patricia Toht shows readers in her happy rhyming story from the first piney whiff to the final turn-on-the-lights time. Illustrations cheer in the best holiday way with sparkles and tinsel and happy children all through the story. Some pull the tree home on a sled; others tie the tree on top of the car for a longer trip home. Then the fun begins. One lovely idea is first to invite friends over to trim the tree with you. I love the lively rhyming and clever words, like "Strands of tinsel/ on the tips,/ falling down/ in silver drips." Every turn of the pages shows another double-page spread that follows along step-by-step, the "way" it's supposed to be, right? Those double pages are filled with happy kids having a lot of fun--of course.

          Red and Lulu are a loving pair of cardinals who make their home (nest) in a large evergreen tree that keeps them cool in the summer and warm in the winter. The family nearby decorate the tree with lights and sing “O Christmas Tree” in the season. One day, sad to tell, a terrible thing happens. The tree is cut down, and carried off--with Lulu trapped in the nest! Red follows as fast as he can, but even he cannot keep up with a large truck. The story is a surprise as it moves into the final scenes, a story of Red and Lulu’s tree that becomes the tree at Rockefeller Center! This is going to become a favorite for everyone who celebrates Christmas. Tavares’ story of love and devotion and the need for happy endings is made even more beautiful by his illustrations! One of the many favorite pages is when Red and Lulu finally unite. It is a reunion that sings “Hallelujah”.

        There’s a snow globe on the cover (a flat plastic circle with what look like tiny styrofoam pellets, showing the family that’s about to do on a BEAR HUNT! Each page shows how they go, but the added fun is that it’s a pop-up book, too! A dad and his four children go “swishy swashy” through grass, “splash splosh” through a river, “stumble trip” through a dark forest, and on, until they “tiptoe” into a cave and meet “a shiny wet nose”. Oh no, and back they go, ending in a surprise that will have everyone laughing. What a fun book showing an old favorite game.

    It’s a board book with small things to push and pull, then animals pop out to send the wishes for a Merry Christmas. There’s a QR code given in order to access the song in order to sing along.

I'm still reading Sinking The Sultana: A Civil War Story of Greed, Imprisonment and a Doomed Journey Home by Sally M. Walker. And I've started a new adult book.

I finished Alma Flor Ida's Love, Amalia from my #MustRead list. That makes fifteen out of twenty-six completed!

          I'd like to add one older one at the end that you may not know and that I enjoy reading every December, especially since everyone is getting excited about the ALA awards coming next month. It has stories written by famous Newbery winners. Though not so new anymore, it is enjoyable with stories by Beverly Cleary and others. Wouldn't it be nice if this was done again with recent award winners, too?

Happy Reading!