Thursday, September 16th, 2010
A Simply Wonderful Christmas: A Literary Advent Calendar [Hardcover]
From School Library Journal
Grade 3-6–First published in Austria, this collection of 23 stories and one poem offers up small helpings of holiday spirit, one for each of the first 24 days of December. Each selection is a few pages long and deals with friendship and family, empathy and imagination–all good things to be thinking about in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. Standouts include Sigrid Laube’s Kidnapping Saint Nick, in which a department-store Santa agrees to help two kids give a special treat to their ailing grandfather, and Andreas Schlüter’s You Do Believe in Guinea Pigs, Don’t You?, about a talking guinea pig with attitude who goads a child into creating just the right gift for her family. Leffler’s watercolor illustrations, ranging from tiny decorative flourishes to full-page paintings, supply additional charm and whimsy. These stories could be used effectively in a classroom as a special holiday treat or to spark creative-writing projects. Several blank pages are included for readers to add their own holiday memories, making this a less-than-ideal choice for libraries, and references to modern technology will date some of the stories rather quickly, but the emotions are timeless.–Mara Alpert, Los Angeles Public Library
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Product Description
With twenty-four stories–”one for each night in December as we count down to Christmas–”this is a perfect book to share with the whole family. The stories are by turns humorous, touching, sad, and sentimental. Some stories tell of Christmas traditions from other countries and cultures that we may not be familiar with. For those, we have included a short piece explaining what that tradition is, where it comes from, and how it ties into our own customs. The lush illustrations from Austrian illustrator Silke Leffler are reminiscent of Zwerger at her best. Complete with a ribbon marker, this is a gift book to treasure for years to come.
Buy A Simply Wonderful Christmas: A Literary Advent Calendar [Hardcover] at Amazon
Category: Advent Calendar
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Compiled and organized by Silke Leffler, “A Simply Wonderful Christmas: A Literary Adventure Calendar” offers children of elementary school age a wonderful and enthusiastically recommended collection of twenty-four seasonally appropriate stories meant to be read one at a time for each day in December leading up to Christmas. The stories are enhanced with Leffler’s lovely and whimsical illustrations reflecting the enchantment and magic of the three weeks leading up to Christmas Day. There are even pages set aside where young readers (and their parents) can record personal holiday memories making “A Simply Wonderful Christmas” a truly enduring family legacy and keepsake.