New (to me) Christmas books for the basket

We have a big Christmas book basket (not to be confused with the seasonal book basket for winter) and check out lots more from the library.  Every year I like to add one or two Christmas books to the basket, the ones I'm already looking forward to reading next year.  These were my favorite "new" books this year:

A Christmas Like Helen's by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock; illustrated by Mary Azarian (Houghton-Mifflin, 2004).  "To have a Christmas like Helen's, you'll need to be born on a Vermont hill farm, before cars, or telephones, or electricity, and be the youngest of seven children."  This gorgeous book is the next best thing.  Be sure to read the author's note (she's one of Helen's 32 grandchildren).

A Clever Beatrice Christmas by Margaret Willey; illustrated by Heather M. Solomon (Atheneum, 2006).  We love Clever Beatrice.  This time Beatrice promises her friends that she will show them a bell from Pere Noel's sleigh, a button from his cape, and a curl from his beard on Christmas morning.  Perhaps Pere Noel will leave some of those things behind at our house this year, too?  We'll leave him a big piece of the buche de noel just like Beatrice and her mother did.

Santa's Littlest Helper by Anu Stohner; illustrated by Henrike Wilson (Bloomsbury USA, 2004).  For my littlest helper, who loves forest animals.  I love that Santa's helpers look...just like Santa!  Makes sense to us.  And I just noticed that there is a sequel:  Santa's Littlest Helper Travels the World (Bloomsbury USA, 2007).  All of these author-and-illustrator teams have other books I haven't yet seen yet.  It's like a Christmas present!

Are any of you adding a Christmas book to your basket this year?

Poetry Friday: Saint Thomas

The Christmas shelves at our branch library have been picked over by now.  This book was (not surprisingly, sorry to say) one of the ones that was left:  Christmas Folk by Natalia Belting; illustrated by Barbara Cooney (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969).  Barbara Cooney illustrated some of our favorite Christmas books (The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston [Dial, 1988] and The Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumer Godden).  I had never heard of Natalia Belting, though.

Christmas Folk is blank verse about the Christmas folklore of the Elizabethan period (mumming, wassailing, etc.); if it were published today, it would probably include some interesting background information.  For the record, last night was Saint Thomas Eve.  Girls would put a peeled onion under their pillow and pray:

Good St. Thomas, do me right,
Send me my true love tonight;
In his clothes and his array,
Which he weareth every day,
That I may see him in the face. 

hoping to dream of their future husband.  Sorry if this comes too late for some of you, but maybe you could try it next year!

Today, then, is Saint Thomas Day, when girls and women would go from house to house, collecting flour for their Christmas baking ("thomassing").  Maybe it would be a good day to deliver your gifts of baked goods, instead?

Saint Thomas Day is also the winter solstice:

St. Thomas gray, St. Thomas gray,
The longest night and the shortest day.

Happy Solstice!  We will be taking our recycled aluminum can lanterns on a long walk this evening.  I'll be back in this space after Christmas (with a list of books given and received).  Merry happy holidays!

The Newbery Project

I just joined The Newbery Project (thank you, Alicia).  Participants are reading books that have won the Newbery Medal, awarded by the ALA since 1922 for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.  The goal is to read all of the Newbery winners; there is no time limit (thanks again!).  Reviews and responses are posted on the project website, indexed by book.  It's interesting to see which of the older winners are being (re-)read first.

This is actually my second Newbery Project; the first was in elementary school.  Our library kept the Newbery Medal winners on a special shelf under the windows, lined up by publication date.  There was also a poster where our librarian, Miss Herwig, kept track of who read and reported on which book(s) with little gold stars.  By the end of the sixth grade, I had earned a star for every single Newbery winner to date.  Granted, there were significantly fewer then (it was 1983; Dicey's Song won that year).  I still have the dictionary I was awarded at the end-of-the year assembly (a red clothbound edition of Webster's Ninth New Collegiate; I keep it on my desk).  And the certificate, too.

Carnival: Alterna-Princess

The theme for December's Carnival of Children's Literature, hosted by Kelly Herold at Big A little a, is gift books.  If you have a little princess on your list (Disney or otherwise, but probably Disney; I hear those princesses are pretty popular), these suggestions are for you--but also for anyone, big or little, who loves fairy tales.

Consider giving a beautifully retold and illustrated edition of a favorite fairy tale.

One of our favorites is Cinderella, retold and illustrated by Barbara McClintock from the Charles Perrault version (Scholastic, 2005).  McClintock's illustrations (in pen, india ink, and watercolor with gold endpapers) were inspired by a trip to Paris; the prince's palace is based on Versailles and the Paris Opera, and the clothes and hair are from the Louis XIV period.  Cinderella's dresses are gorgeous, dripping with flowers or covered in tiny pink ruffles ("The ladies studied her so that they could copy her hair and dress the next day").  McClintock's retelling is as lovely as the illustrations.  And there is a little gray cat on almost every page.

Look for retellings of the familiar princess stories from other cultures, too.

Cinderella again.  I think there are more Cinderella stories than any other fairy tale.  This year's Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal:  A Worldwide Cinderella by Paul Fleischman; illustrated by Julie Paschkis (Henry Holt, 2007) proves my point.  Fleischman's text weaves strands of many (17, by SLJ's count) multicultural Cinderellas into one story; Paschkis's illustrations keep them (or rather you) from getting tangled up.  I haven't seen this book yet and am curious about how, exactly, it works.  The reviews say it does, splendidly.  I hope it also includes good source notes, in case I'm compelled to seek out one of the Cinderellas for myself (n.b., I love source notes).

Or introduce a new princess (one who doesn't have a movie contract. Yet).

The Princess and the Pea is my favorite of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales.  This retelling by Lauren Child, captured (photographed) by Polly Borland (Hyperion, 2006) is wonderful: literally full of dollhouse (1/12) scale wonders.  A note at the back of the book explains how Child created the sets (out of cornflake boxes!) and drew, cut out, and dressed the characters: it might inspire some small set designers and photographers at your house, too.  Child's text, which stays close to Andersen's original, is charming and clever; best of all, it points out that "any real princess has such impeccable manners that it would be impossible for her to tell her host...that it was the most uncomfortable night that she had ever had, in all her life."

Finally, a good collection of fairy tales, including those familiar and new, is always welcome.

SurLaLunefairytales.com is an excellent resource for all things fairy tale (and some folklore, too).  The work of Heidi Anne Heiner, SurLaLune features 47 (and counting) annotated fairy tales.  Especially helpful in the context of this post (what was that again?  oh yes, gift books for princesses and people who love fairy tales!) are the picture book galleries for each fairy tale (here's Cinderella's).  Which are your favorites?

Lucia and the Light

Happy Santa Lucia Day!  My own little Lucia (and her big brother Starboy) served us dinner by candlelight this evening instead of the traditional breakfast in bed, which can be a little harder to manage on a schoolday.  Later we read this lovely book, a favorite from last year:  Lucia and the Light by Phyllis Root; illustrated by Mary GrandPre (Candlewick, 2006).  Note:  The Lucia of Root's original folktale is not the same as the Italian saint or the Swedish legend.  We know; and we don't care!  This is still an appropriate book to read on Santa Lucia Day and around the time of the winter solstice (after all, in the Julian calendar December 13 was the winter solstice).

Lucia and the Light was inspired by Scandinavian mythology (and Minnesota winters).  It's about a brave girl who climbs a snowy mountain in search of the sun and, with the help of her milk-white cat, rescues it from the trolls so it can resume its rightful place in the sky.  I love the opening lines:

"Lucia and her mother and baby brother lived with a velvet brown cow and a milk-white cat in a little house at the foot of a mountain in the Far North.  The cow gave milk, the cat slept by the fire, and the baby cooed and grew fat by the hearth.  They were happy together, even when winter piled snow outside their door."

Who could resist that scene?  Not I.  I adore Phyllis Root's work, its rich and rhythmic language.  And Mary GrandPre's (yes, that Mary Grandpre's) illustrations, done in pastels, manage to be luminous even when there is no light.  Brava Lucia!

Snow, origami, and dogs

Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect came up with a list of some her favorite gift books for the December Carnival of Children's Literature (to be hosted by Big A little a).  She organized them by category:  snow, origami, puzzles and mysteries, nonfiction, and dogs; and wrote a nice precis of each one.  She also asked for readers' favorites in those categories; here are some of mine:

Snow

Grandmother Winter by Phyllis Root; pictures by Beth Krommes (Houghton Mifflin, 1999).  What happens when Grandmother Winter shakes her feather quilt?  Why, it snows, of course:  big soft feathery flakes; then all sorts of creatures (and children!) must make ready for the cold winter.  I love Phyllis Root's work; here, she was inspired by the German tales of Mother Holle.  And Beth Krommes's scratchboard-and-watercolor illustrations (this was her first picture book; she went on to illustrate Joyce Sidman's award-winning poetry collections) are both beautiful and true.

Origami

Yoko's Paper Cranes by Rosemary Wells (Hyperion, 2001).  Spare text and beautiful art (using origami and washi papers, gold leaf, rubber stamps, and paint) combine to tell a many-layered, extremely satisfying story.  Yoko moves to California, but comes up with a symbolic birthday gift to send her grandmother in Japan.  Includes diagrams for folding an origami paper crane (not the easiest thing to fold, but perhaps the most well-known).  This is also a good wintertime and holiday read, especially for children who live far from their grandparents.

Puzzles and mysteries

The Westing Game by Ellen Rankin (it won the Newbery Medal in 1979).  I still remember reading The Westing Game for the first time; it was so unlike any book I had read before (or since).  The granddaddy of the puzzle/mystery mid-grade novel.  Check out this website, The Westing Heirs; it was created by a group of fourth-graders (and their teachers).  So kids are still reading it!

Nonfiction and Dogs

Dogs and Cats by Steve Jenkins (Houghton Mifflin, 2007).  Milly loves dogs; we have a basket full of her favorite "dog books."  The usual suspects are in there:  Spot, Biscuit, Harry, McDuff; as well as a random assortment of others and a revolving door of dog library books.  This fall we added nonfiction, mostly because Steve Jenkins's cut and torn paper collage illustrations are so appealing (ahem, to me), but his text is nicely organized around questions and comparisons.  It's fair to say that the "and Cats" part of this two-sided book rarely gets read at our house, though.

Thanks again, Tricia!  Everyone (two? three?) else, please feel free to list or link to your favorites in these categories in the comments as well.

KidsPost's favorite books on CD

In advance of the holiday travel season, KidsPost features books on CD today (12/10/07).  Staff writer Amy Orndorff's three favorites include A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban (Harcourt, 2007), which is now on my to-read list (but not my to-listen list, if I even had one; thankfully, we're not traveling anywhere over the winter break this year).  It's about ten-year-old Zoe, who dreams of playing the piano and has to settle for the organ.  This book has been well-reviewed pretty much everywhere in the kidlitosphere; Elizabeth Bird's review at A Fuse #8 Production is particularly convincing.  Plus, look at the stripey toe socks on the cover!  I'm pretty sure I had a pair of those when I was ten.  You can get your own at Sockdreams.com (the folks at Harcourt did when promoting the book).

KidsPost also recommended the audio version of The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (Scholastic, 2007).  How does an audio version of Hugo Cabret, which is told in both words and pictures (nearly 300 pages of them!) even make sense?  I haven't read Hugo Cabret yet, either (it's on the list) but the book's website is fascinating, even if you didn't know you wanted to know about clockworks, cameras, and the early days of French filmmaking.  I didn't!

Seasons of Light

Leo's second-grade class saw a performance of Seasons of Light at the Smithsonian's Discovery Theater this morning (I saw it with them).  The program is about the history and customs of winter holidays (mostly religious holidays) celebrated around the world, and emphasizes how all of the holidays have to do with light: light from the sun, the stars, candles and oil lamps.  The learning guide for Seasons of Light contains information on the winter solstice and on all of the holidays presented in the program.

At home, we read The Shortest Day:  Celebrating the Winter Solstice by Wendy Pfeffer (illustrated by Jesse Reisch; Dutton, 2003).  This book explains, in language even Milly can understand, how and why the days grow shorter as winter approaches, what the winter solstice is, and how that day (and night) has been marked and celebrated by different cultures (Egyptian, Chinese, Incan, and European) throughout history.  The emphasis here is on the scientific, not the religious.  The activity suggestions for the shortest day sometimes span the days and weeks surrounding it, such as making a winter sunrise/sunset chart (we did this last year, looking in the newspaper for the times) and measuring shadows.  My favorite suggestion:  have a winter solstice party!  Or two:  one for you, with yellow-frosted sun cupcakes and candles, and one for the birds.

Look for these collections of stories to read around the time of winter solstice (I'm still looking for them myself, actually!):

• The Return of the Light:  Twelve Tales from Around the World for the Winter Solstice by Carolyn McVickar Edwards (Second edition; Marlow and Co., 2005).  For grownups.
• Fireside Stories:  Tales for a Winter's Eve by Caitlin Matthews; illustrated by Helen Cann (Barefoot Books, 2007).  We would love a copy of this book; unfortunately, our library doesn't hold it yet.  Barefoot's themed collections are very nice, and this one looks perfect for cozy read-alouds.

Hans Brinker

It was snowing when we went upstairs last night.  I tucked both kids (and myself) into Leo's big bed with a new picture book:  Hans Brinker, retold by Bruce Coville and illustrated by Laurel Long (Dial, 2007).  Right away there was a lot of ooh-ing and aah-ing over Long's lush, luminous paintings of snow-covered Dutch towns and landscapes.  The snow seems to sparkle (and inside, the candles glow).  Then we discovered that the story really begins on the eve of St. Nicholas...and of course, last night was the eve of St. Nicholas.  It was the perfect book for us to be reading together.

Coville does a wonderful job with this adaptation of the novel by Mary Mapes Dodge, first published in 1865 (see the Holiday High Notes from the November/December 2007 issue of The Horn Book for a review).  The story is somewhat complicated:  there is the race for the silver skates on one hand, and the situation surrounding Hans's father, who lost his memory after an accident ten years before, on the other.  Leo was intrigued by the mystery of the missing thousand guilders (and the origin of the silver watch; see, I told you it was complicated), and he was excited to learn the outcome of the race (spoiler alert: Hans does not win).  Milly might have fallen asleep, but she's only three and it was past her bedtime.  As for me, I especially liked the character of Hans, who is "strong of heart and true of purpose" (Coville, in an adaptor's note):  a good role model for my own sturdy boy (and girl).

[Happy St. Nicholas Day!  To learn more about St. Nicholas and how his day is celebrated in Holland around the world, go to the website of the St. Nicholas Center:  Discovering the Truth about Santa Claus.]

Aesop Elementary

The Fabled Fourth Graders of Aesop Elementary by Candace Fleming (Shwartz and Wade, 2007) was a Washington Post KidsPost Book of the Week way back in October (the winning entries in the KidsPost fable-writing contest were printed in today's paper).  While I think everyone should know (if not love) the originals, I really like the idea of recasting Aesop's animal fables with kids, and retelling (or completely rewriting) the fables in an elementary school context.  Each of the fourth-graders in Fleming's book gets his or her own short school-themed chapter or "fable", complete with moral; there is also a romantic subplot involving the fourth-grade teacher and the school librarian that runs the course of the school year.  Warning:  the book itself is very punny!

This article by Judy Freeman in School Library Journal online (Curriculum Connections, 11/8/2007) has lots of good suggestions for teaching with The Fabled Fourth Graders.  First among them is reading the classic fable along with the corresponding chapter of the book (compare and contrast!).  If you're so inclined, or if you're just interested in reading Aesop's fables, these are my two favorite picture book editions:

• The McElderry Book of Aesop's Fables by Michael Morpurgo; illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark (McElderry, 2005).  Also my kids' favorite.
• Unwitting Wisdom:  An Anthology of Aesop's Fables retold and illustrated by Helen Ward (Chronicle, 2004).  More sophisticated retellings.