A quick note on my month!
If you've been visiting my blog for a while, you probably know that I reread a pile of children's Christmas books every December. It changes from year to year. Sometimes I sit with a big pile and read one after another. Sometimes I skip some titles and just read a few favorites. Sometimes I stretch the reading out and/or add a couple longer stories like "A Christmas Carol" or a Christmas novel if I feel like it. I've been gradually adding titles to my Christmas pile for years as I've found children's Christmas books help me get into the spirit of the season, even if I'm having a grumpy December. And, in recent years I've also purchased the annual Short Story Advent Calendar from Hingston and Olsen. This year, I chose to read one Christmas or winter story per day (till I ran out) while also reading the Kids' Short Story Advent Calendar, which I bought a year or two ago, and slotting in a bit of regular reading. Because I read so many books this month, I've tried to keep the reviews a bit shorter but fair warning, this is a very long post.
December:
131. White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link - A collection of short stories loosely based on fables, White Cat, Black Dog is one of those books that I have mixed feelings about. I liked the first story, about a young man who is one of three brothers sent on various quests by their father. The wealthy dad says if they fetch him this or that, whoever returns with [whatever] will get the inheritance. But, it's really all a ruse to get them out of the house that leads to another quest, then another. When one of the sons meets a white cat who runs a marijuana farm, he finds himself happy, for once. It only gets weirder after that. The next story I don't recall but I hated it so much that I considered DNF'ing the book. Instead, I let it sit for a couple of weeks and then picked it up and finished. My favorite story was about a man who can only appear when it's snowing and who is saved by a girl who unpicks the embroidered fox on his coat and sets it free. I'm glad I stuck it out for that story. Still, not a book I'll hang onto.
132. The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg - Last year was the first year I've read this story in spite of the fact that it was published in 1985 and I'm certain it came through the store when I was a bookseller. I remember flipping through but not reading it. Weird. This story of a boy who goes on a train ride to the North Pole, receives the first gift of the season from Santa, then loses the gift immediately has a lovely ending so I've added it to my annual Christmas/winter children's book rotation. The Polar Express is the first of my annual reads for 2024.
133. The Little Reindeer by Nicola Killen - Another book that was new to me in 2023, The Little Reindeer tells the story of a child who hears jingle bells, goes outside, and hops on a sled to locate the sound. When she finds a collar with bells on it and helps put it back on a reindeer, the reindeer takes her for a ride in the sky and then drops her off at home. While not much happens in this story, the illustrations make it magical. I love the bits of foil and the little windows that allow you to peer through to the following page. A beautiful book.
134. Ollie's Ski Trip by Elsa Beskow - Ollie gets some new skis and then must wait and wait for enough snow to go skiing. When there's finally a thick blanket of snow, his mother fixes him a sandwich for each pocket and tells him to be home by supper. In the forest, Ollie runs into Jack Frost and Mrs. Thaw, whom Jack chases away till spring. Jack Frost takes Ollie to visit the Winter King. Ollie gets a tour of the castle, meets children who make gifts for Christmas, and has loads of fun playing with them during their work break before getting a ride home. I think the main reason I love this book is that it brings back memories of the blizzard of my childhood that dropped enough snow to build a fort (in Oklahoma). Best. Winter. Ever. I would love to find more books by this author, who is known as the "Swedish Beatrix Potter."
135. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Suess - The Grinch cartoon was one of my childhood favorites and I can still recite a good portion of the book. When I read it, I hear the voice of the cartoon narrator in my head. I doubt anyone is unfamiliar with the story but just in case . . . the Grinch hates Christmas. The noise, the singing, the feast. All of it annoys him till one year he gets the brilliant idea to steal all the decorations, the presents, the food of the people down in Whoville. He'll stop Christmas! But, when he finds that Christmas goes on, the villagers perfectly happy without their toys or their feast, his heart grows three sizes and he joins in on the festivities. It's such a wonderful classic. A mean green curmudgeonly guy who learns his lesson! Christmas is joyful even without gifts! I will always love this story.
136. The Story of the Snow Children by Sibylle von Olfers - When Poppy gets bored after her mother steps out and then she sees snowflakes dancing but they turn out to be snow children, she hops on a sled and goes with them to an ice castle in the woods. There, she meets the queen and princess, joins in on a birthday celebration for the princess, plays with the snow children, and becomes so tired that the queen agrees it's time for her to return home (on a sled pulled by polar bears). Her mother is thrilled to see her. Published in 1905, when there was no such thing as a search and rescue team to comb the woods looking for a missing girl. Funny, this story always strikes me as the tale of a missing child who doesn't know she's missing. I still love it.
137. A Pirate's Night Before Christmas by Philip Yates and Sebastian Serra - A favorite of mine when I reviewed it many years ago, my husband gave the review copy to someone with a young child as we didn't yet have any grandchildren (I had planned to keep it but, oh well). I've been looking to replace it for years and it's finally available as a board book, so I ordered a copy and yep, it made me smile just as much as I remembered. Instead of Santa, there's Sir Peggedy, who comes up from the ocean in a sleigh driven by seahorses, the story told as a rhyme in pirate language. Loads of fun and I'm so happy to finally own a copy, again. I'll be dragging this one out yearly, for sure.
138. Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy - When I first read Sipsworth, earlier this year, I found it difficult to get through the first half because in that first half the main character, Helen Cartwright, is deeply sad and just marking time. She's lost her family, moved home to England, and is waiting to die . . . until the day she decides to bring home an aquarium full of garbage put out by the neighbor and discovers a mouse living inside. She wants to get rid of the mouse, at first. It's a rodent, after all. Instead he becomes a companion to her and his presence brings other people into her life. Quietly, everything changes and Helen acquires both a found family and reason to live. The second reading was even better because I knew great things were coming. This time I read it for group discussion, which I highly recommend. There's a terrific Reader's Guide available online.
139. Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree by Robert E. Barry - If I had to pick one childhood Christmas story to keep, Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree would be at the top of my list. Mr. Willowby is a rich man who gets a magnificent tree but it's a wee bit too tall. In rhyming verse, the book tells the story of the treetop that Mr. Willowby has cut off to keep it from touching the ceiling and bending like a bow. Passed to the upstairs maid, the treetop is too tall for her, too tall for the gardener and the fox and the bear, etc. Its top keeps getting lopped off, growing smaller and smaller till the last little bit ends up in a mouse hole, back in Mr. Willowby's house, right next to the original tree. Utterly delightful. I'll love this book forever.
140. A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote - One of the two books I absolutely must read every Christmas season, A Christmas Memory tells a story from Capote's childhood, when an elderly relative damaged by a childhood illness ("she is a child") is his best friend. Together each year, they save up their pennies to buy ingredients to make 30 fruitcakes to give and mail away as gifts. They go to the woods to chop down a tree and then make handmade decorations. Then they make each other kites and fly them together. This bittersweet tale ends with Capote being sent off to military school, never to see his beloved friend again. Beautifully told, of course.
141. The Snowman by Raymond Briggs - Another winter book I missed out on, published in 1978. A little boy goes out in the snow and builds a snowman, returning inside for a warm meal and to fetch various pieces like coal for buttons, an orange for his nose, a hat and scarf. Throughout the night, he watches in the hope that the snowman will come to life and when it does, the boy shows him around his home and then goes on a flying journey with the snowman. But, was it all a dream? I would have been fine with this wordless story being left a fantasy but the dream aspect was good, too. Except, then I had visions of Patrick Duffy in the shower (that's a Dallas reference for the youngsters).
142. The Christmas Owl by G. Sterer, E. Kalish, and R. Kaulitzki - Subtitled "Based on the True Story of a Little Owl Named Rockefeller", The Christmas Owl tells the story of a tiny owl who became trapped in the tree cut down and taken to New York's Rockefeller Center for Christmas. It begins with the owl noticing the beautiful lights being put up for Christmas and wondering what Christmas is. Then, she becomes trapped in the tree, is found by a worker when the tree is put in place, and is taken to a wildlife rehabilitator, who gets her back to full health and releases her so she can return home to her friends. A sweet story with beautiful illustrations and a nice extra section explaining what wildlife rehabilitators do.
143. A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas - The second of my two favorite Christmas reads that I absolutely cannot do Christmas without, A Child's Christmas in Wales is a story of boyhood Christmas mischief with the poetic wording you would expect from a man known for his poetry. A joyful, rambunctious delight full of personalities that reek of a different time and place (uncles relaxing without their collars on, aunts getting into the sherry). I love this book immensely. Recently, a friend took it a bit too literally. When the boys stand around pretending to smoke and then eat their cigarettes in front of a scandalized neighbor, for example, I believe they were pretending with candy cigarettes (sugar fags, which are mentioned by that name later). Wonderful.
144. The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore - You don't need me to say a thing about this classic, but what I will say is that my sister and I had the most gorgeous copy of The Night Before Christmas I've ever seen (a gift from our aunt and uncle) as small children and I've been looking for something comparable for years, decades even. I found a copy with art by Antonio Javier Caparo that I love. While not as eye-popping as the copy we used to own, the illustrations are as close as I've found to my childhood copy.
145. Orbital by Samantha Harvey - Not one, not two, but three of my friends are reading Orbital as I type, so I should have plenty of people to discuss with. Orbital is a slice of life story, completely plotless, about 6 astronauts in the International Space Station. While the ISS travels around the Earth 16 times in a day, the author describes their daily lives: the work and rest, their thoughts and dreams, what they see out of the window and how they feel, as well as their reflections on how they came to be astronauts. The view from both the windows and a space walk is particularly vividly described. My only complaint is that I would have liked to follow along in an atlas and I haven't had a world atlas since my last one was drowned when a room flooded in our old house. Pretty amazing writing. Samantha Harvey clearly did her research.
146. Five on a Treasure Island (The Famous Five, #1) by Enid Blyton - In this first book in the Famous Five series, Dick, Julian, and Anne are sent to stay with their cousin Georgina (who wants to be a boy and goes by "George") and her parents on the coast of England. George's family used to be very wealthy and owned a lot of land, including the nearby island with a ruined castle that's still in their possession. George's father is a writer and doesn't like noise, so the 5th in this group is George's dog, whom she pays a fisherman's boy to keep for her. When the group goes for a visit to the castle ruins and is caught in a massive storm, a wreck from the ocean floor is washed up. The rest is all treasure-hunting adventure and danger, much like what's in the Adventure series by Blyton that I'm still working my way through. Loads of fun.
147. Strongmen by Ruth Ben-Ghiat - My childhood best friend recommended Strongmen to me, a few years ago. It was more up-to-date, then, but it still works as both a historical look at modern authoritarians, how they behave, what causes them to fly into a rage or shut down, and how all of these characteristics have been manifested in the incoming and former President of the United States, whose name I won't bother repeating. Y'all know him. What was particularly interesting to me was the parallels between the President-Elect and two strongmen of the past, in particular. He is closest to Mussolini and Berlusconi. Warning: authoritarians are into torture of all kinds, including sexual torture, "disappearing" people, and are not afraid to have minions kill those who have escaped or been exiled in the nations to which they flee. The part about torture was so miserable that I put the book down for weeks. My favorite part, of course, was reading about how authoritarian regimes end. While some of the strongmen described survived to die natural deaths, the violence they inflicted upon their people was often revisited upon others when they were finally deposed. An excellent book and one that every American really ought to read, right now. It ends at 2021 but is still every bit as relevant.
148. You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World, ed. by Ada Limón - A broad variety of styles and approaches to the subject matter are included in this anthology of poetry that is loosely based on nature. I ordered a copy to read for my friend Buddy's Contemplative Reading Project and enjoyed it immensely. Some of the poetry went over my head. That's always true. But, most of my favorites had to do with trees, probably because I'm a person who manages to find a favorite tree in every town. I was also deeply moved by the poem by several Hawaiian authors, which was half written in Hawaiian and not translated but clearly an elegy for the lost community members of Lahaina. An excellent volume of poetry, highly recommended.
149. Kids' Short Story Advent Calendar by Hingston and Olsen - This will be my final short story advent calendar as they're a bit too expensive to buy in retirement. Fortunately, I bought this particular version a couple years ago and meant to read it in parallel with the regular version but decided two advent calendars was one too many, so I saved it. There were some great stories and a variety of well-known and not-known-to-me authors. My absolute favorite was a ghost story told in two parts.
150. The Fabulous Zed Watson by Basil and Kevin Sylvester - A note first about this book: it was 1 of 4 books in a teacher's classroom that drew complaints from a parent (I don't recall where) and for having the four books available to her students, the teacher was suspended from her job. I bought 3 of the 4 books to check out the content for myself. The Fabulous Zed Watson is about a non-binary tween who is a little obsessed with the mystery of what became of a manuscript that was never published. 4 chapters are available online, along with a poem. When Zed and their neighbor Gabe, Canadians, decide the poem may contain clues that lead to the missing manuscript and Gabe's sister has to go to Arizona to return to school, the 3 go on a road trip in search of clues. So, I guess the problem a parent had with this book was simply the non-binary and gay characters. There is no sexual content, whatsoever. But, Zed does explain a bit what it means to be non-binary and you get a glimpse of their experience with being dead-named and misgendered. For an older person like myself, "they, them, and their" are often confusing because I think of them as plural but in this book the pronouns are used sparingly and don't confuse the individual with the collective, so to speak. Zed is a delightful character whose goofiness rubs off on their companions. A really fun little mystery/road trip/adventure. No teacher deserves to have her job put at risk over this book.
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