Celebrating Christmas with Reading!
By Erin Wasinger,
ERB Contributing Editor
Specializing in Books for Young Readers
Brief reviews of three new Christmas books for kids …
The Christmas Feast
By Nathalie Dargent and Magali Le Huche (illust.)
Hardback: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2020
Buy Now: [ IndieBound ] [ Amazon ]
Little Mole’s Christmas Gift
By Glenys Nellist and Sally Garland (illust.)
Hardback: Beaming Books, 2020.
Buy Now: [ IndieBound ] [ Amazon ] [ Kindle ]
The Jesus Storybook Bible: A Christmas Collection
Inspired by Sally Lloyd-Jones, illustrated by Jago, narrated by David Suchet
Hardback: ZonderKids, 2020.
Buy Now: [ IndieBound ] [ Amazon ]
The Christmas Feast
By Nathalie Dargent and Magali Le Huche (illust.)
Christmas 2020 could use some laughs — The Christmas Feast delivers. Nathalie Dargent’s tale serves up humor and wit in a season saturated with saccharine-sweet stories. A fox, a squirrel, and a wolf swipe a goose for their Christmas meal. Surprisingly for them, she quickly turns into a bossy mother hen type. Sure, it’s an “eat me when I’m fatter” story, but its predictability doesn’t take away from the fun. The expressive animals drawn by Magali Le Huche pairs with Dargent’s non-fussy language for more than a few chuckles. (Don’t miss the last illustration!) The book was first published in French about a dozen years ago, and it’s a gift to us English-speakers this holiday.
Little Mole’s Christmas Gift
By Glenys Nellist and Sally Garland (illust.)
Little Mole’s Christmas Gift modernizes the Grimm Brothers fairy tale of the child who is generous to the extreme. Little Mole (from Little Mole Finds Hope) dreams of giving Mama a big, heartfelt Christmas gift. He finds the perfect thing, but forest critters in need compel Little Mole to chip away at the gift until all that’s left is a tiny nugget of what was. Grown-ups can predict Mama will love her Little Mole’s generosity, but any child who wants to wow a parent on Christmas morning will recognize Mole’s disappointment. Sally Garland’s texturized drawings are charming, too.
The Jesus Storybook Bible: A Christmas Collection
Inspired by Sally Lloyd-Jones, illustrated by Jago, narrated by David Suchet
How much more Jesus Storybook Bible do we need? After all, the wildly popular bible for kids has sold more than 2 million copies since its 2007 release. More than thirty languages have their own translations. A curriculum, a related resource for teens and adults, and audio and video versions complement the catalog. Surely this market’s seen enough, right? Not yet: A Christmas Collection has convinced me there’s room for more. First (and best): audio buttons! Who doesn’t love pushing buttons? Ten recordings narrate excerpts from the stories and play a few bars of classic carols. The book’s large enough for reading on a grown-up’s lap, and features twenty-four kids’-sized devotionals leading to Christmas Eve. While this gift-worthy book doesn’t add new stories by Lloyd-Jones, it’s a perfect introduction for Storybook novices (and Storybook novices are literally born every day).
Erin Wasinger
Erin F. Wasinger is a writer, speaker, and an elementary school “library lady," as well as our Contributing Editor Specializing in Books for Young Readers. Erin’s also the cofounder of Spark Writers of Southern Michigan, blogger for MadeleineLEngle.com, and author of The Year of Small Things: Radical Faith for the Rest of Us (Brazos, 2017). Find her online at: ErinWasinger.com
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Erin, thank you, thank you for including Little Mole in your round-up. He is so grateful! 🙂