The 12 Days of Children's Christmas Books

Who needs eight maids a-milking when you could read fantastic books instead? Okay, sorry, corny joke, but I did pick twelve Christmas books in honor of that song. You could give a kid the 12 days of Christmas books! Or read a book the 12 days leading up to Christmas. Or do a cool display. Or anything else your heart desires.

Personally, I'd read them every night before Christmas. This was always a family tradition of mine, to read holiday books together. This list, actually, is a collection of my very, very favorite reads from those many December nights. You see, I realized that there were certain books that I eagerly looked forward to every year. So yes, there are a lot of holiday books out there, but here are the ones that get me every time, with the last being my most favorite of all...

Snowmen at Christmas
Written by Caralyn Buehner, illustrated by Mark Buehner
978-0803729957 (Dial, 2005)

Ever wondered how snowmen celebrate? After everyone's asleep, they have their own big Christmas party, of course! Eating icy treats, they sing and dance, and eagerly await their snow gifts from snowman Kris Kringle. This book is written in wonderful rhyme, so it's perfect to read aloud. And then the pictures are so detailed and fun! Of course, I will also admit that it is written by a former teacher at my old elementary school, so I am especially biased...but still! So good. I sure love reading about the snowmen at Christmas.

Reviews of the Week 11/28

A solid group of 4-stars today. My holiday-break-reads were fun, inspiring, hilarious, and completely tragic. Yeah, I have quite the rollercoaster of emotions for you this week...

  

Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived Will Never Die

It's practically Friday, right? What with a wonderful holiday tomorrow. So I'm just going to do a Fun Friday post today. Mainly because I found this comic online and it made me laugh really hard so I had to share it.

Harry Potter, my friends. His awesomeness will never die. In both the sense that the excellent series will continue to garner fans in years to come and...because people will want to keep making a buck off of it by creating all sorts of spin-offs. For instance, the recent release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (yes, both the movie and screenplay book). A return to the wizarding world and the writing of J. K. Rowling for Harry Potter fans everywhere! (...and sadly, I have not yet seen the movie or read the screenplay. Soon to be remedied! Thanksgiving-tradition-of-going-to-a-movie to the rescue!)

Which brings me to the subject of this comic. Apparently, the only way to make a really excellent movie out of J. K. Rowling's work...is to have her write the screenplay itself.

But hey, it makes for a funny comic strip...

Behold, George Rottkamp's comparisons between the Harry Potter books and movies.

Reviews of the Week 11/21

Thanksgiving this week! So yes, my mind is already on time with family eating delicious food. But there's always still time for books. The ones this week were pretty good, especially a certain picture book that's been garnering some Caldecott buzz...