This year we are celebrating Advent with books. I saw this idea on a blog last Christmas and decided we would do it ourselves. We had some Christmas books, but I found many more at a local used book store. This is a wonderful place, especially if you are like me and love children's books. In fact, it may be a little dangerous:-).
So here are the books we have unwrapped and read each evening on our countdown to Christmas.
A Charlie Brown Christmas
I found a beautiful copy of this story at our local library's book sale. I find the story kind of sad, but also think it is a great telling of the true story of Christmas.Little Angel (Geraldine McCaughrean and Ian Beck)
This is a sweet story of a little angel who gets separated from the others when they come tell the shepherds about Jesus' birth. A little shepherd boy helps her get back to the others and is helped by her as well.
The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey (Susan Wojciechowski, illustrated by P.J. Lynch)
This is one of those stories that always chokes me up... a hurt and bitter person reminded of the truth of Christmas. It was a little too old for Grace, but Hannah enjoyed the story.
One Winter's Day (M. Christina Butler, illustrated by Tina Macnaughton)
I LOVE this story. Someone from our church gave it to our girls last Christmas. It is a story about a little hedgehog who gives away his hat, scarf and mittens and ends up being blessed by those he blessed.
Danny and the Kings (Susan Cooper, illustrated by Jos. A. Smith)
We read this book tonight and once again I got a little teary eyed. It is a story of a boy who wants to get a Christmas tree for his brother and ends up being blessed by several truckers... a "Hallmark" story (not really, but you know what I mean).
I got this because my girls love their I Spy board book, but we found this extremely difficult to find the objects. I might take it on our trip and play our own game of I Spy with it.
The Christmas Story (Rona Davies and Tommaso d'Incalci)
The illustrations are great and it sticks pretty closely to the biblical story.
Silent Night (illustrated by Darcy May)
I like the illustrations in this book. It follows the words of the song. Hannah liked that we sang the song after we read it.
Laura's Christmas
This is a "lift-the-flap" book and an early introduction to the Little House books. Hannah and I have read the chapter books (up until The Long Winter), but she liked this book as well. An Angel Came to Nazareth (pictures by Maggie Kneen)
This story is told from the perspective of 4 animals who needed to chose who they would take to Bethlehem. While 3 animals pick "important" people, the donkey picks a pregnant woman. It is a nice retelling, but not one of my favorite.
Baby Jesus board book
Even Elizabeth gets a Christmas story. This story is told in rhyme, but I wouldn't call it a "must have" book.The First Christmas (Carol Heyer)
I LOVE the illustrations in this book. It is a good retelling of the Christmas story.
The Golden Christmas Tree (Jan Wahl, illustrated by Leonard Weisgard)
We enjoyed this story about the animals working together to decorate their Christmas tree. Hannah has asked to read this a couple times. I thought a good activity to do after reading this book would be to decorate a tree for the birds (like peanut butter and birdseed pinecones), but it didn't happen this year.
Angelina's Christmas (illustrations by Helen Craig, story by Katharine Holabird)
Hannah loves Angelina Ballerina and this was another sweet story in that series. Angelina blesses a neighbor in need of compassion.
God Gave Us Christmas (Lisa Tawn Bergren, art by David Hohn)
I really enjoyed God Gave Us You and bought it before Hannah was born. A friend gave us this book and it is a great story about Mama Polar Bear and her cub going out to find God through the ways He makes himself known in nature.
So that is where we are. We have 10 more books. The last book will be the reading of the Christmas Story from either The Jesus Storybook Bible or The Big Picture Story Bible on Christmas morning. The kids seem to have enjoyed opening a book each morning and I like reading new books.
I'll post the rest after Christmas!
1 comment:
It's amazing how many Christmas books there are out there! I don't think I recognized more than 1 or 2 on your list. Will have to check them out to see if they fit the age group of my kiddos...who are determined to outgrow me asap!
Post a Comment