MommaReads

My six-year old was particularly drawn to this book, so I thought I would share it with you. The snow people are getting ready to throw a party as they do every year when it snows on the first day of winter. They dress the trees with lights, set out their picnic supplies…there are even snow people who bring their instruments so everyone can have some music to dance to. I think my child’s favorite part of the book is when they show what the snow people eat…snowballs, chunks of ice…he thought that was pretty funny. 🙂 This is a cute book for a wintery day.

What will she swallow this time? A pipe, some snow, some coal, a hat, a stick, and a scarf which all make a….snowman!!! Your child will love trying to guess what it is that’s going to happen with all of the things she is swallowing.

This book is another example of Jan Brett’s wonderful stories and incredible illustrations. The illustrations alone tell their own story and children quickly figure out that by looking at the pictures on one page, that they are getting a glimpse of what is going to happen later on in the story. In this book, Kyri is getting ready for a Christmas feast, but she is worried that the trolls who have often spoiled their Christmas dinner are going to come and raid their house again tonight. She ends up having a welcomed unexpected visitor, a boy from Finnmark and his ice bear. They are sampling some Christmas food when the trolls do invade, but what the trolls don’t see is the ice bear asleep under the wood stove. When the ice bear hears all of the commotion he springs out from under the stove and the trolls scurry away, but not without having made a huge mess in the meantime. Those trolls might not come back for years to come though now that they think Kyri has an ice bear living with her.

We love Karma Wilson and we especially love Karma Wilson’s Bear books. Bear has snuggled in for the winter, but his friends really want him to get up for Christmas. His forest friends do finally manage to wake him up so he can participate in the festivities. They go get and decorate a tree and sing songs until all of Bear’s friends fall asleep. While everyone naps, Bear stays up and bakes and wraps so that all of his friends wake up the next morning to some Christmas surprises. All of that celebrating eventually wears Bear out and he heads back to sleep. Super cute story that rhymes and the illustrations are great, too.

One of Santa’s elves gets frustrated with Santa because Santa is always late. He is so busy polishing his boots, trimming his beard and reviewing the maps that there is always a “last-minute rush”. So Muckle, the elf, creates a machine that will travel around the world and deliver all of the presents…it even sorts the presents and it doesn’t waste time eating all of the cookies the children leave out. Santa realizes that this machine is faster after they have a few contests between Santa and the Deliverator, so Santa concedes and lets the machine deliver the presents on Christmas Eve. The weather on Christmas Eve is not ideal, however, and it can’t handle the weight of the gifts and down it goes in a ball of flames. Guess who comes to the rescue.

This is a great Christmas book for the preschool and under set. It’s simple, it rhymes and it explains the Christmas story in a very basic way. The book introduces children to the donkey, the ram, the ox, the shepherds, the wise men, Mary, and baby Jesus. The illustrations in this book are fantastic as well. This is a perfect first Christmas book.

Mrs. Wishy-Washy decides it’s time to wash the animals, but the animals have other ideas…it’s too cold to take a bath. When they protest she decides to go to town, but tells them they need to wash themselves while she’s gone or there will be no presents for them this year. So the animals get the brilliant idea to take a bath in Mrs. Wishy-Washy’s nice warm house. Mrs. Wishy-Washy returns from town and sees the absolute mess they have made, but it’s that time of year, so she forgives them and they all enjoy opening up presents and eating cookies together in Mrs. Wishy-Washy’s warm living room.

It’s the first night of Chanukah and a boy is playing with his brand new dreidel when it flies out the door, down the stairs, through the city, into the country and out to sea. Family, neighbors and other community members join in the chase, but his dreidel ends up as a twinkling star in the sky, so they head back home to sing, dance and eat latkes. I love the rhyming in this book and the story is cute but I LOVE the illustrations!!!

A family gets ready for a HUGE family gathering for Hanukkah. As expected, chaos ensues. The dog knocks over the menorah, Aunt Myra spills all the applesauce and Grandpa Dave hides the dreidel and ends up teaching the kids how to play poker and blackjack instead. Through all of the chaos of the Hanukkah season and with all of the company they have in their house, in the end, another miracle has happened…the family is “quiet and calm and all getting along”. This is a cute rhyming book that will entertain children and adults alike.

Did you know that Santa hasn’t always been Santa? It’s true. In his younger years he was a chimney sweep, but he lost that job because he always got it done without getting dirty and no one thought he was actually doing his job. Then he tried working for the post office, but that didn’t work out because he thought he could deliver mail to people faster, so he tried doing it in the middle of the night. People didn’t appreciate the late night deliveries, so he lost that job, too. Then he tried working in a diner…lost that job because he was sampling all the sweet treats. Got a job at the zoo, but lost that one because he was favoring the reindeer and the other animals got jealous. He does eventually stumble upon the perfect job and the rest is history.