Christmas books for Over 6s

Now for Advent Books to read to the over 6s. I love sharing these because there are so many opportunities to talk about the 'real meaning of Christmas', to consolidate work that classes have done in history units in class, to hark back to discussions in Circle Time and to draw on travel experiences.

1.  Cat in the Manger by Michael Foreman;  The Witness by Robert Westall;  Room For a Little One by Martin Waddell or any other nativity story where the point of view is changed. These three look at the story from the animals point of view. There are many others as well. The donkey's view also often appears in picture books. It is always interesting to be a bystander and report on an event and I enjoy asking students to do this themselves so these stories give them a starting point to form their own view. I read about a picture book this week that gives Joseph's view. How modern!

2.  Refuge by Anne Booth or Flight by Nadia Wheatley. While these two stories appear to tell the story of the journey to Bethlehem they also allow the reader to broaden the concept of Mary and Joseph's journey to encompass the plights of refugees in their journey in search of a safe place.

3. The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie DePaola. I have included this as a folktale that explains why poinsettias are part of the Christmas tradition. If you can't find this, look for Cobweb Christmas  by Shirley Climo or  The Spider's Gift by Eric Kimmel  which are folktales explaining why we have tinsel on trees.

4. The Christmas Caravan by Jennifer Beck is a lovely story about Simon who wants to enter a competition. This gives you many opportunities to discuss competitions, decorating homes at Christmas and what is required to really appreciate Christmas. It also looks at Southern hemisphere Christmas traditions. Perhaps pair it with The Boxing Day Test by Sharon Willis.

5. Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost and Susan Jeffers. While strictly speaking it is not a Christmas story it has snow and Susan Jeffers has used touches of red and green with the black and white of night and snow to evoke a very special setting in New England in Winter, when it is Christmas. The vellum cover on the book adds to the mystery and gives it the feeling of a present.

6. Silent Night  by Lara Hawthorne is a new book that brings this beautiful carol by Joseph Mohr to life by featuring the world's diversity as it moves through the lyrics. There are other versions though which highlight the origins of the carol. See Silent Night Holy Night which has beautiful Robert Ingpen illustrations and Silent Night which has Susan Jeffers' illustrations.

7. The Story Holly and Ivy by Rumer Godden. This story can just be read from the novel version, but I love the picture book edition illustrated by Barbara Cooney. I serialise it with my year 1 classes and right from the first sentence, 'This is a story about wishing.' they are hooked.

8. The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski and P.J Lynch is another picture book which draws readers in, allows them to empathise with the characters and be surprised by the ending. The students love the foreshadowing and the lightening of the illustrations as the story progresses and Jonathan's demeanour changes.

9. The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston and Barbara Cooney. I usually read this book to Year 2 in the week of  Remembrance Day in November. This makes the discussion of World War 1 and Ruthie's father's absence very pertinent. This is the nativity play story for older students. They revisit their nativity plays, the standing on chairs and the carol singing.

10. In Flander's Fields by Brian Harrison-Lever  and Norman Jorgenson tells the story of Christmas in the trenches during World War 1 when the fighting stopped, a robin is rescued and the soldiers sing Silent Night in English and German.


11. Fair's Fair  by Leon Garfield. This short chapter book has been published in many formats and with various illustrations. If you can't find the picture book version illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain read it to students without pictures and make them visualise for themselves because hers are so evocative that the rest pale to not be worth sharing.  This story about Jackson, an orphan is set in Victorian times and is told with such suspense that it is a bit scary but the ending is just what student readers require. A good friend found me a new copy of this at the Lifeline Book Fair, so you too could be lucky.

12. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and Quentin Blake. I recommend this to parents of avid readers because when they share it their children make comparisons with Fair's Fair and other books they have read at school and they bring it back saying what great discussions the family had. I grew up with this story as my father had a record of someone reading it that we listened to every Christmas.

Others not to be missed:
Coming Home by Michael Morpurgo; The Polar Express by Chris van Allsburg; Manger by Lee Bennett Hopkins; and Cat on the Hill by Michael Foreman.

Merry Christmas and happy reading.

31st December The Nutcracker

As the year ends and I now have time to reflect on year's end in the library and just how many Christmas books we have, I still have trouble discarding favourites and those by favourite authors or illustrators. This year we contemplated culling the large number of versions of The Nutcracker we have, yet as we agonised over which ones to let go we realised that every single version we owned had been borrowed during 2015, so ultimately none went. I have a diehard group of girls who will borrow anything that has to do with ballet, so James Mayhew's Ella Bella Ballerina and Marilyn Singer's Talulah versions had been borrowed several times. That is due too, to the power of a series. Tallulah stories are borrowed frequently. James' ballet series is even more popular at the moment than his Katie and artist series.

The story of the Nutcracker has two sources...a story by German author E.T.A. Hoffman called The Nutcracker and the King of Mice and the ballet The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky which was also based on this story and was first performed in 1872. At Christmas many ballet companies perform this ballet so many children know the story of Clara, the Land of Sweets and the Sugarplum Fairy. It's plot is very appropriate for young children as it is about overcoming obstacles and of course good triumphs over evil.

Some very well known illustrators have done picture book versions, even Maurice Sendak who was involved in designing the sets for a production. If your library doesn't have a version look at these four:
• Jane Ray
• Susan Jeffers
• Alison Jay, and
• Ian Beck (author Berlie Doherty)
From these you will be able to select the 'right' amount of text and still have a 'traditional' version of the story.

The other titles above are for more specific audiences. Bea in the Nutcracker  is an ideal introduction for a very young ballerina. Whatever you choose from above you will get exquisite artwork and a good read. Happy New Year.

23rd November The Twelve Days of Christmas

Browsing through the Christmas picture books I noticed that Alison Jay has done a new version of The Twelve Days of Christmas and I picked it up for perusal, and while it does have beautiful artwork in her trademark style, I did wonder how many copies one library needs of this song, especially a school library like mine where school finishes for the summer holidays three weeks before Christmas and the teachers do so little Christmas-wise with their classes. Some very well known children's illustrators seem to have enjoyed creating their own version - see among others Susan Jeffers, Rachel Isadora, Brian Wildsmith, Jane Ray, Jan Brett, Robert Sabuda, Britta Teckentrup and Jane Cabrera.

One of the most popular holiday songs of all time, 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' probably originated in France during the late Middle Ages and became popular in England as a chant sung without music. The 12 days are traditionally those following Christmas, with the last day being the end of the season. Over the years the lyrics have changed but the song remains a perennial favourite. 

I sometimes use the song to explain to students that the twelve days are the twelve days after Christmas Day that take us up to Epiphany, the day when the three kings went to visit baby Jesus and the day when traditionally we take down our Christmas tree and decorations.

As well there are many spin offs designed to suit a particular place. There are African (A Stork in a Baobab) and Latino (A Piñata in a Pine Tree) versions and here in Australia there are a myriad of innovations, with emus, kookaburras and platypuses up gum trees and even an underwater version by Kim Michelle Toft. The original by June Williams and John McIntosh is gentle and almost reverent, the newer ones such as the Heath McKenzie version and the Colin Buchanan version are loud and boisterous. At the Lifeline Book Fair this weekend near my home I could have bought a number of each version for as little as fifty cents each! Perhaps good for compare and contrast activities and as background to making your own.

1st August Horse's Birthday

There is Cow Day and I decided to do books to support a Sheep Day, but it appears as if there is no National Horse Day, so I am making the 1st August, when every horse in Australia has a birthday, Horse Day.

All thoroughbred horses have the same birthday so as to standardise their ages for racing. In the Northern hemisphere all horses have their birthday on 1st January, but here it is 1st August.

This appears odd when a horse born at the end of July is already considered a yearling in August and then a 2 year old after its second August 1 even though it is really only one year and a few days.

Horses are very popular in children's literature, especially in novels for young readers. There are many horse-mad young girls visiting my library.

This collage shows some of the books that are popular. Except for Princess Evie's Ponies and the Bonny and Sam books these are not series. Aussie Nibbles and Aussie Bites both have several titles which feature horses.

In Australia, Alison Lester's books show her great love of horses and illustrator Patricia Mullins is often called upon when the title features horses because she too has a strong affinity with horses. Lightning Jack, her most recent title illustrated for author Glenda Millard is on the Picture Book of the Year shortlist. There are teacher's notes to accompany it here. Look for horse stories by American illustrator, Susan Jeffers as well because she too draws beautiful horses. See her picture book version of Black Beauty.

10th April Eric Knight (1897 - 1943)

Author Eric Knight was born in Yorkshire, England but moved to the United States when he was fifteen as his mother had married an American. Although he wrote many novels in his short life, he is probably best remembered for Lassie Come Home, a story that made Lassie and collies famous and movie stars. He raised collies and other dogs with his wife on a property in Pennsylvania and wrote his Lassie story here in 1938. Unfortunately he was killed in an aircrash while working as a major in the U S Army.

Two stalwarts of children's literature, Rosemary Wells and Susan Jeffers have taken the original story of a Yorkshire boy and his collie, Lassie who is taken away but manages to find his way back to the boy hundreds of miles away, and turned it into a magnificent picture book. Noone my age can read it without a tear or fond memories of rerun after rerun of the movies on television, but for children who like adventure stories or dog stories it is still worth a read.

29th January Bill Peet (1915 - 2002) Rosemary Wells (1943) Allan Baillie (1943)

Bill Peet was a remarkable American illustrator who started drawing for Walt Disney and therefore was involved in many of their animated movies, but as well as this, he was the author illustrator of a large number of picture books for children. Most had animals as their characters and they behaved at various times like the animal they are drawn as, but often they are personified as well. Many of these titles are hard to find now, but those you can locate still have a lot to offer readers. My school library has Zella, Zack and Zodiac; Encore for Eleanor; Pamela Camel and Cyrus the Unsinkable Sea Serpent. Bill's books combine humour, good vocabulary and subtle lessons with comic drawings.

I know a person cannot be an icon, but for me American author illustrator Rosemary Wells is almost an icon. Children recognise her illustrations immediately. Rosemary has so much to offer children, parents and teachers through her work in the world of children's literature. Her website offers teachers and parents so much information about reading, how children learn to read and how best to share literature with children. And then on top of that she has a multitude of beautiful picture books to choose from. There is her series about Max and Ruby where sibling rabbits behave exactly as children do. Max and Ruby became so much part of our family life that my son used to come and say to me that his older sister was 'doing a Ruby' which meant she was telling him what to do. Last year one Year 2 at school got so involved in the McDuff series, which are illustrated by Susan Jeffers, that they wanted to write to Rosemary and tell her that they needed her to do more titles. The preschoolers like her Edward books because he is always doing something for the first time. And, we shouldn't forget all the Mother Goose books and the classics Noisy Nora, Timothy Goes to School and Morris's Disappearing Bag.

I am going to write about Australian author Allan Baillie tomorrow.

7th October Susan Jeffers (1942)

Susan Jeffers is an American illustrator. She has a love of horses and illustrates snow, crystals, dew, weather particularly well. On her website she explains how she does this...

For the most part I work in pen and ink and guache, an opaque watercolor. I make thousands of little lines with a fine pen to describe the forms. Tnis looks hard, but it is actually the easiest part and is very relaxing. The most difficultpart for me is telling the story with the right relationship of composition and characters to convey the emotion of the story. This requires making many little drawings, called thumbnail sketches, until the drawing says what you want it to say, hopefully.

I find it very hard to decide which books to highlight here, to decide which are my favourites or which I have had the most memorable teaching moments with. I love Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening because of the limited colour palette and the snow. I like the gentle colour and tone of The Wild Swans, the rich purple used in the carol Silent Night and I like all of the McDuff books (even though I often wonder why Rosemary Wells didn't do them herself), because one of the Year 2 classes at school at school have thoroughly enjoyed them this year while studying about their parent and grandparent's time.

26th March Robert Frost (1874 - 1963) Natalie M. Rosinsky

It is American poet, Robert Frost's birthday. The poem that springs readily to mind when his name is mentioned is Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening. In Australia this poem depicts an experience that is very foreign unless you live in the Snowy Mountains. Many children would not experience snow or the rural life it encapsulates, but when it is combined with Susan Jeffers' illustrations as it is in this beautiful picture book the experience is much more easily imagined. The purity of the black and white illustrations, with minor green and red touches creates a perfect atmosphere for the gentle, reflective words of the poem, where the traveller stops to admire the beauty of the woods but then is pulled back to his obligations.

Natalie M. Rosinsky is not as well-known as Robert Frost and I do not know her birth year, but she is a writer of non-fiction books. Rosinsky's books Rocks: Hard, Soft, Smooth and Rough; Dirt: The Scoop on Soil and Water: Up , Down and all Around which are part of the Amazing Science series are worth a look if you are looking for simple information books for under eights.