From the day after Thanksgiving until Christmas Eve, Grandpa and his family are hard at work in the Christmas Tree Hut helping families pick out the perfect tree, but what many people don’t know is all of the work that goes into the trees all throughout the year. This would be a wonderful book to read to your children, especially if going to a Christmas tree farm is a family tradition in your house.
Mortimer comes across a house just his size, but there are a bunch of people statues in it, so he drags them all out to give himself more room. There is even a tiny baby statue laying in a “nest” of straw, so he takes that one out too so that he will have a comfy place to sleep. Mortimer comes back the next night and all of the people are back in the house, so he has to drag them all back out again. He goes back again, just in time to hear the story of Christmas being read and he realizes that the statue people that he has been dragging out of his new-found house were actually people from the Christmas story. Both you and your kids will love this book…it has become a Christmas tradition at our house.
A young boy celebrates the lights of Chanukah and also notices the lights around him…headlights from a car, lights in the kitchen, the lights on his front porch, his neighbor’s Christmas lights…all of those lights remind him of Chanukah and being Jewish, even when Chanukah is over. Also, as your little ones are counting the lights on each page, have them find the cats, too. This book is very engaging for many age levels.
Jennifer’s class is getting ready to make Christmas decorations when Jennifer tells her teacher that she doesn’t celebrate Christmas, she celebrates Hanukkah. Mrs. Matthews has Jennifer make Hanukkah decorations instead and that night Jennifer is so proud of being the only one in her class that is Jewish that she makes up her own club called The Only One Club. She even makes herself a pin to wear that says “The Only One Club.” When her classmates see the pin they want to join too because they are the only one of something. Olivia Raven is the only one whose last name is a kind of bird and Jonah wants to join because he is the only kid in the class with red hair. Things start to go down hill and some of Jennifer’s classmates want to start a Not the Only One Club, but Jennifer has an idea and ends up inviting everyone in her class to join her club because they are all unique and the only one of something. She even makes badges for all of them…including Mrs. Matthews.
Sammy Spider warms his feet by the menorah’s candles each night as he watches Josh and his family eat yummy foods and listens to them sing songs during Hanukkah. Sammy Spider is a little jealous of the dreidels and wants one for himself, but his mother reminds him that “Spiders don’t spin dreidels. Spiders spin webs”. (This part repeats several times and is fun for kids because they catch on and will “read” along with you when you get to that part of the story.) In the end, Sammy Spider’s mom surprises him with a gift that helps Sammy Spider forget about how disappointed he was that he didn’t get to have a dreidel of his own.
There are many different types of snow…the quiet snow, the big fat cheerful kind of snow, the kind of snow that tells you you are going to get to go home early and the kind that just barely dusts the trees. This book is a quiet reflection on snow. It reminds us how the snow will eventually melt, leaving only the memories that it made, but this book also doesn’t let us forget that snow is for the children.
This book has been around for over 40 years and is still one of my favorites. This story follows Peter around (in his memorable red jacket) as he tracks through the the snow, makes snow angels, watches the big kids have a snowball fight, slides down hills and makes one last snowball to put in his pocket to save for later. The cadence of the words and the illustrations are what make this book a keeper…it is truly timeless.
Sam has a cough so his mom runs down the stairs to get him some cough syrup, but the spoon is too big and won’t go in his mouth (or maybe it just tastes yucky). Either way, the promise of snow coming soon coaxes Sam out of bed. He and his mom enjoy some nice warm tea with honey and wait for the snow. I love the illustrations in this book…have your little one look for the mice on each page.
A simple rhyming tale introducing the youngest of readers to the traditions of Hanukkah…candles, stories, latkes, songs, gifts and dreidels. The illustrations in this book are warm and inviting and gives the reader a sense of the importance of family and togetherness that surrounds this holiday.
