Christmas Book Reviews

Every night in December, we unwrapped a book.
I had wanted to review books as we go along but our computer was out of commission for a couple weeks and then the holiday season caught up with us! I will try to keep the reading short and sweet but I really wanted to share a few of our favourites. 

The first one:

Counting to Christmas by Nancy Tafuri

This book brings together all the most common traditions most families will celebrate throughout the holidays.  It counts a couple days for each page. "Days 1,2, and 3 i paint, cut and paste.  Days 4 and 5 I write, stamp and send..."  There is large print and large illustration with just a little detail.  Our three year old seemed to be drawn to this book because she recognized all the activities the story had.  Our one year old seemed to loose interest around day 21.

Next up we have:

It's Christmas by Tina Burke

Both little one's loved this book.  I also used it at story time at Little Bird and all the children seemed to enjoy it.  One little girl even wanted her mom to read it afterwards!  The illustrations are clean and bright with just a little bit of text on each page.  This story also focuses on the traditions of Christmas.

The next one has such beautiful illustrations.

Who Was Born This Special Day? by Eve Bunting and Leonid Gore

This wonderfully illustrated book is set in the stable where baby Jesus was born.  It asks "Who was born this special day? Was it you, little lamb? I was born back in early May when the breezes of spring chased winter away." This was perfect to snuggle up and read beside the light of the tree.  To be honest, I think I liked this one more the kids! They sat and listened to it but they didn't ask for it to be read again.  I wonder if the "hazy" illustrations were to difficult for the kids to understand.

Finally, a story with a CD.

The Night Before Christmas by Performed by Peter, Paul and Mary.

You can guess how THIS story ends!  What makes this a great read is the illustrations and the CD.  The story is sung with a guitar being played.  Our littlest one was in bed when we unwrapped this one so I'm not sure how he would have liked this one. 

Daddy snuggled up with this one and Ginger asked "Why aren't you reading it?" Daddy: "Because the CD is singing the story." Ginger: "But I want you to read it!"

So, the CD was turned off and Daddy finished it.  She certainly liked it because she asked for me to read it after Daddy was done!

A couple honourable mentions include:

And now Christmas is over and the wrapping paper is cleaned up and put away. But I really want to keep this up. We have added a basket to the living room that holds all our library books. I think I will try to sit down with the 2 of them and have them choose a book to read altogether, before bedtime.

Did you start any new traditions this year?