Tuesday Storytime: Christmas

Holidays are always so interesting.  On the one hand, it makes things easier for selection, because there's your topic hanging RIGHT THERE.  On the other hand, it limits choices because now the selection criteria include topical limitations; at least Christmas books aren't as universally unfortunate as the Thanksgiving ones are.  On the third hand (running out of hands here) celebrating (or just acknowledging major religious/cultural holidays can be a bit fraught, because there are often not enough quality resources available to do a storytime about other cultural holidays - I feel like I should be more pro-active about finding those, but this is only one of several hats I wear.  On the fourth hand, getting back to celebrating holidays, especially with Christmas, I feel like there's a distinct possibility that caregivers are just the tiniest bit sick of it all, and would be thrilled to have something else to talk about with their toddlers for an hour or so.  On the fifth hand, I do have a whole lot of parents who are either temporarily in the states or are freshly immigrated, and so there is a whole cultural phenomenon they're actively trying to figure out.

I overthink things sometimes.  

Three lovely Christmas books.

Christmas in the Country

Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Diane Goode 

ISBN: 0439073340

Narrator remembers a long-ago Christmas with her grandparents.  Less country and more old-fashioned.

Likes: narrator lives with grandparents, Christmas is shown as secular (trees and Santa and presents) and religious (two different church services), and it deals with the END of Christmas and the associated rituals that make the post-event process go smoothly (taking out the tree, putting away ornaments, a special snack).

Dislikes: no PoC, slightly too long for my wiggle-worms today, and the illustrations aren't my favorites - very cartoony and loose.  

Christmas Wombat

Jackie French, illustrated by Bruce Whatley

ISBN: 9780547868721

Australians celebrate Christmas too, and so does this very greedy wombat.

Very few words here, and sequential illustrations.  I narrated a bit more than the actual text, and asked leading questions as the book progressed, and the caregivers got a kick out of the humor, and the kids were impressed at the sheer number of carrots eaten by this roly-poly furball.  Short and funny - a perfect fit.

A Short History of Christmas

Sally Lee, with Gail Saunders-Smith (consulting editor)

ISBN: 9781491460955

A bit scattershot, but very basic and clearly laid out description of Christmas themes and traditions.

This is my second Christmas reading this book (I discovered it a bit over a year ago and was delighted with it) and while I'm still very pleased with it, I will say that the ending is a BIT sharp.  I would have liked to see more time spent on modern traditions and approaches to Christmas (we only get a single spread before it turns abruptly to the glossary).  The only other quibble I have is that the language presents the existence of Mary and Joseph and the timing of Jesus' birth as historical facts, when it could very easily have been phrased to indicate that this is considered truth for Christians, and not necessarily by others with different belief systems. The scattershot approach isn't actually a negative for me, considering the attention spans of my little ones, and the one-topic-per-spread approach means that they constantly have something new and interesting to re-engage with.  (And engage they did - lots of audience participating on this book as they showed off all that they knew about Christmas and Saint Nicholas and traditions.     

Tuesday Storytime: Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving books are unusually tragic, and really unsuitable as a whole for storytimes for younger kids.  This lack really makes it hard to find a trio that doesn't have something smarmy or treacly, just because that's leagues better than the alternatives.  I wasn't unhappy with my choices here, but I do wish I had more quality to select from.

I Go With My Family to Grandma's
Riki Levinson, illustrated by Diane Goode
ISBN: 9780525442615
Several branches of a big-city family converges on the grandparent's place for a family photo.

An old but sweet book from Levinson, with exceptional old-timey documentary-style artwork by Goode.  A cumulative/repetitive book: each branch of the family has a different color, travels via a different type of conveyance, and comes from a different borough of New York to Grandma Central, where they all meet and mingle before everyone's together for a great big family portrait.  The familiar family get-together balances the utterly unfamiliar cityscapes and transit modes to make it just the right amount of different but understandable.

Thanksgiving Cats
Jean Marzollo, illustrated by Hans Wilhelm
ISBN: 9780606172820
Adorable cats in mid-1990s style "scholastic book art" run through a cutesy rhyme.

Ok, I know this is trite and cutesy, but it was either these cats or one of the dozens of insufferable "Thanks for Thanksgiving" style books where the whole thing is simply a very slightly disguised (or not at all disguised) prayer of thanks.  No thank you.  Cats it is then.  There are Thanksgiving Cats and Thanksgiving Kittens, and the Cats do farming and kitchen work (there are visually-gendered cats doing both farming and kitchen tasks, which I heartily approve) and the Kittens play, perform a simple task, or simply get in the way.  The only weird thing is "apple pie with cheese" which I can't figure out if it's merely inserted to scan the necessary rhyme, or if that's actually a thing.  

Duck for Turkey Day
Jacqueline Jules, illustrated by Kathryn Mitter
ISBN: 9780807517345
Tuyet is disturbed by her family's chosen "Turkey Day" tradition when it doesn't match up.

A lovely book covering cultural differences, adapting traditions to fit your own family needs, and the really intense and often overlooked desires of all children to simply fit in and be "just like teacher" or "just like everyone else."  Tuyet's family maybe could be a bit more understanding and explain things, instead of letting her teacher do all the heavy lifting, but it is what it is.  The schoolroom is purposefully diverse, but it gets the point across neatly.

Juvenile Classic: Ballet Shoes, Noel Streatfeild and Diane Goode

Ballet Shoes
Noel Streatfeild, illustrated by Diane Goode
ISBN: 0679901051 (library binding)
Re-read while off at a conference.

I don't remember the first time I read this book, but I know it wasn't during childhood.  Which is a crying shame, because I would have loved this sweet little classic domestic about three adopted siblings finding their passions and their purpose in the worlds of dance and performance and machinery.

The plot is simple: an old man is an inveterate traveler and fossil hunter, and he picks up three "fossils" along the way that are a bit different.  They're left at his big home in the care of "nanny" and his grand-niece, and while he's away, they grow up in difficult financial circumstances, necessitating them hosting boarders and the girls performing (dance and acting) professionally to earn money as soon as possible.

It's like Alcott, but less twee, and not really any moralizing at all.

There's a movie also, with a very peculiarly aged (and blonde!) Emma Watson, which I haven't seen yet, but seems watchable in that sort of "Shirley Temple" adorable saccharine way.

Picture Book Roundup: Biographies! Founding Mothers, Grandfather Gandhi

These are way too long and complex for storytime, but I just couldn't see them come in and not read them.


Founding Mothers: Remembering the Ladies
Cokie Roberts, illustrated by Diane Goode
ISBN: 9780060780029

I really picked this up because of the illustrations - I hadn't noticed the author until I started writing this review.  The endpages on this book are especially worthy of note - made up of collections of writings of the founding mothers.  Very impressive, and beautifully done.

Inside, we get an introduction from the author explaining how the concept of the "founding mothers" was missing when she was in school, so she decided to correct the lapse (I agree with her), then we get a quick timeline of what the "founding" timeperiod comprises (1765-1815) and then we're straight into a spread biography of each woman - when they were in time, what they focused on, what they loved and hated, and what they are remembered for.

Eliza Lucas Pinckney (indigo)
Deborah Read Franklin (Ben Franklin's wife and business manager while he was in "exile" in France
Mercy Otis Warren (letter-writer/campaigner)
(brief pause for a spread on Women Writers of the time)
Phillis Wheatley (former slave, child prodigy)
Abigail Adams (wife and mother to presidents/presidential advisor)
Martha Washington (troop support/first First Lady/vaccine promoter)
(brief pause for a spread on Women Warriors of the time)
Esther DeBerdt Reed (fund-raiser/campaigner)
Sarah Livingstone Jay (expat patriot)
Catharine Littlefield Greene (Washington supporter/troop morale booster)
Dolley Madison (rescued orphans)



Grandfather Gandhi
Arun Gandhi and Bethany Hegedus, illustrated by Evan Turk
ISBN: 9781442423657
mixed-media collage, rich colors, sharp edges.

This is a lovely powerful book.  If I had slightly older children, I'd pair it with Peace, Baby, and have a storytime of the power of CHOOSING peace.  A grandchild of Gandhi comes to the commune, and is frustrated by the simple life there, by sacrifices, by racial tensions, by having to share his famous grandfather, and by his own inability to live in a feeling of peace.  The pivotal moment is when Gandhi reveals that not feeling anger isn't the goal - it's deciding what to DO with that anger.  Do we lash out and destroy like lightning, or do we harness the power of our anger like electricity to fuel our futures?

The mixed-media collage is mostly strings and threads and cloth, and when they appear, they're almost three-dimensional, inviting the reader to reach out and touch these characters.

Really impressive.