Advent Books

As a Pre-K teacher my students and I are big fans of Mrs. Wishy Washy. This plot is similar to the original in that she is trying to bathe them so the children can really relate to it. When the animals have a good ole time bathing in Mrs. Washy's bathroom my class can't stop giggling. You can't go wrong with a Mrs. Wishy Washy book in an early childhood classroom.

I had never heard of Mrs. Wishy Washy before but saw it on a list of books for purchase from my 3 year old daughter's preschool. We LOVE this book. We've had it about a month now and we read it at least twice per day. And the thing is, I love it too, not just my daughter. The rhymes are great, the pictures are fun and its such a cute story. It's a lot of fun to read out loud. I like this book so much I quickly ordered another Mrs. Wishy Washy book that turned out to be much shorter and not too great. So that was a disappointment, but this book of hers is really fun and children will love it.

For any child who loves books and shape sorting, this book (as well as the original Shape Sorter Book) is the BEST! My 2-year-old son's speech therapist brings it to his sessions around Christmas time, and my son loves it! He loves it even when it's not Christmas time!!! What a great idea to combine two of the best kid activities - reading & shape sorting! Very creative! Cute, Cute, Cute!

I bought this book and the original shape sorter book for my 5 and 2 year old girls and they LOVE these books. They can play them over and over again and even the 2 year old understands the concept of finding the correct piece and positioning it just right to make it drop down into the catch-box. The only complaint I would have is that it needs to come with a backup set of pieces....they can be easily lost with little kids.

My granddaughter is 18 months old and this is her favorite book right now. She loves to sniff the goodies and tried to taste them the other day. My daughter has loved reading it to her over the Christmas season.

I really like this book. It has so many different textures as well as common secular Christmas things (Santa, reindeer, stockings, angels, ornaments, cookies, presents, candy canes, tree, etc...). The textures are truly unique (sticky, furry, bumpy, rough, velvet, satiny, etc...), plus you have all the different words. There is a new texture on about every page. All of the books in this series are great! I thought the price was a little high for this one, but my girls were 18 months at Christmas and really were into touch and feel books. They still love it, even though it is March!! This is a very secular Christmas book, but it is fun. We have many other books about Jesus and the true meaning of Christmas that can be found in Christian book stores, but this was just a fun touch and feel book for that time of year. I think it was worth the money.

This brightly illustrated book does a wonderful job explaining different Christmas symbols: lights, Christmas trees, angels, and presents; in light of the true meaning of Christmas, Jesus' birth. My 3-year-old son loves this book and asks for it more than he does the Santa Claus books. This book has helped me to have conversations with my children about Jesus as we enjoy all of our Christmas traditions. I highly recommend it! For more ideas on bringing Christ back to Christmas, check out Lisa Whelchel's The Adventure of Christmas.

I am a mom to three (7,6, 3.5)and a preschool toddler teacher at a Christian preschool. I was so thrilled to find this book...it's the perfect balance in regard to explaining the religious AND secular aspects of Christmas celebrations! It really breaks it all down into things the young ones can understand without losing the religious meaning or sacrificing the customs and traditions that they have come to associate with the holiday. I highly recommend this book!

Jerry Camery-Hoggatt writes My Mother's Wish remarkably in the voice of a woman looking at her early years with uncommon insight. Little Ellee sounds much like Mark Twain, while Teen Ellee sounds a lot like someone I want to know and could have been. As a Polar Express, conducted by humor like that of Twain and Roald Dahl, this story is priceless. It should be read aloud to children and adults at Christmastime.

Ellee's mother tries to tie off the loose ends of unfinished business with her own mother by naming Ellee after the older woman, "Eleanor Crumb" McKutcheon. The name Eleanor represents high tea and lace, while young Eleanor wants to be called by her real name, Ellee, which represents adventure and individualism. She wants the unconditional love and acceptance we celebrate at Christmas and does not want to wear the cloak of expectations best suited to someone else. Ellee flees one night after she listens from upstairs as her mother calls her horrid names to her father downstairs.

Only Ellee's third grade teacher ever understood the need for a real name, later coming to Ellee as a gypsy in a dream. Ellee becomes that gypsy, heading out of the 1960's Midwest to Nebraska, where she seeks shelter from a storm in the Comeback Cafe close to Christmas day. The diner goes silent as an old trucker picks up a crying infant and sings ancient Christmas carols that transform the diner into Holy Ground for several minutes of magic that evaporates as he returns to his seat at the dining counter.

Amid school administrators and waitresses that seem to have several arms each, Ellee finds a friend in a trucker driving a boatload of goulash to the Midwest. He's related to someone she knows and perhaps also to God himself. His truck, called the Good Ship Horvath, transports Ellee towards acceptance with a parable.

If we could apply this story outside of the week between Christmas and New Year's, we could better change the world, one corner at a time.

Don't mail Christmas cards this year-send this book.

Armchair Interviews agrees.

In Hastings, Nebraska, young Eleanor "call me Ellee" Crumb McKutchen heeds the call of the poet Juan Ramon Jimenez who urges people to "write the other way"; thus Ellee's philosophy of life is "contrariwise". She wants to be part of the changing the world and knows where and who she wants to start with; her mom who has an image that she expects from her daughter; a vision that Ellee cannot see for herself.

Considering running away the tweener sits at the Comeback Café, thirty miles from her home, wondering how to mend her broken dreams without hurting her mom who puts up blank Christmas lists for herself, her spouse, and her two children Susan and Eleanor; Susan being Ellee's older engaged sister. Each fills the list, but fulfilling it is irrelevant. Ellee knows mom means well even if her good intentions pave the way to hell for Ellee. Suddenly a three-armed waitress and an eccentric truck driver Jedidiah accompanied by his cat Cecily provide the distraught child with a strange holiday brew; an adventure on the backwaters of the Plains in what matters in life.

This is a terrific tweener Christmas Carol, Americana Midwest style starring a distraught girl whose flight of fancy is in opposition to her mom's no nonsense attitude. Fans will enjoy Ellee's adventures as Captain Jedidiah and his not named Mrs. Smee cat take her on a journey of understanding. This is a fun tale and mom's gift to her youngest daughter is the perfect Christmas present.

Harriet Klausner

DAN GUTMAN IS A GREAT AUTHOR AND HIS NEW WEIRD SCHOOL SERIES IS A WONDERFUL EXAMPLE OF HIS CREATIVITY

Miss Holly is one weird teacher. For one, she teaches languages in what is called a language lab, yet there are no mad scientists hanging about. Two, she's constantly wearing a bowl of fruit on her head and dancing around in a very strange, and embarrassing fashion. And three, she's decided to hang mistletoe about all over her classroom, which must mean that she wants all of the boys and girls to kiss. A.J. isn't having it. After all, there's no rule that says you have to kiss underneath the mistletoe, it's just there if you want to kiss someone underneath it. But Andrea refuses to take that into consideration, and, being a stickler for rules, feels that everyone must kiss underneath the mistletoe - even reluctant students. Luckily, when the class learns that there will be a Secret Santa present giveaway, thoughts about mistletoe go out the window, and suddenly everyone's scrambling to find the perfect gift for their Secret Santa, otherwise they'll be present-less on Secret Santa day. But when they discover that they also have to put on a holiday recital, the Weird School kids decide that Miss Holly is taking the holidays way too far, and acting much too jolly for her own good.

I have never read one of the books in the MY WEIRD SCHOOL series before. However, I was pleasantly surprised by Dan Gutman's holiday offering. MISS HOLLY IS TOO JOLLY! vaguely reminds me of THE BAILEY SCHOOL KIDS series, dredging up some crazy teachers to run amok, and leave the school virtually in the hands of a bunch of childish, immature, yet extremely likable, children. Miss Holly is an entertaining character who is sure to leave young readers laughing. Between her crazy antics, and kind nature, she provides the picture of a perfect teacher - aside from the fact that she has a tendency to teach her students very strange phrases in Spanish. The children, on the other hand (A.J., Andrea, Emily, Ryan, and Michael) are your typical students - making fun of one another, misbehaving, and laughing at the most inappropriate moments. Dan Gutman certainly knows kids, for he's written personalities for his characters that shine like the brightest star on the Christmas tree; that will leave readers ho-ho-ho-ing long into the night!

Erika Sorocco
Freelance Reviewer

The two volumes of the St. Joseph Weekday Missal, along with the St. Joseph Sunday Missal provide an ultimate mass tool that is affordable. Why spend [price] on a Daily Roman Missal when you can get the same thing better for [price]? These three missals enable you to enjoy and follow the mass every day for the rest of your life. I just wish that the Amazon price was smaller.

This is an excellent missal. It's simple to follow, has a lot of extra information in it, and is fairly easy to follow along with.

This book is the nicest collection of Christmas stories I have found. There are stories for kids as well as adults; Christmas spirit comes alive in this marvelous collection of short stories.

This collection of short christmas stories is wonderful. This is a great book to start a Christmas family tradition. Some stories teach a lesson, some warm your heart and soul and others just make you feel good. I take it with me when I babysit in December, and often read favorite stories over and over. This is the kind of book you share with friends and family!

I love this latest Nicky book! The design is perfect; the photos of Nicky endearing. The fun poetry in playful multi-sized fonts of different colors, some shimmering gold, is filled with intertwined Christmas and jazz imagery. Like snowflakes, jazzy mittens, Santa, the reindeer boogie woogie, angels and of course, cool cats in a bebop wonderland. I'll read it on Christmas Eve to my three young nephews, all Nicky book and cd fans. Then we'll dance, prance, sing and strut to Nicky's Jazz Christmas companion cd as we put finishing touches on the Christmas tree.

Confessed Nicky fans that we are, my friends and I have already bought several copies of "Nicky's Jazz Christmas" for upcoming holiday gifts, but we couldn't wait until Christmas to give it to our 2 and a half year old Nicky groupie. The latest in Carol Friedman's amazing series, this book is packed with adorable Nicky photos (not to mention poetic Christmas imagery) which our daughter personally narrates to us from the next room--what he's doing, wearing or saying-- and then she'll spontaneously sing a few phrases from Louis Prima's "Music goes Round and Around" from the Nicky's Jazz for Kids CD. (She's still learning the Christmas songs on the new CD). We couldn't be happier about the influence these books and CD's have had on her, and can't recommend Nicky's new Jazzy Christmas (and all the other Nicky products) enough. And even though I'm one of those complainers about too much Christmas music, I've already got the accompanying CD going in the car. It's adorable... our favorite Christmas CD so far.

I purchased Clement Moore's and Richard Jesse Watson's The Night Before Christmas after reading a newspaper review. I have many other versions of this book. I especially like the beautiful illustrations in this one. The colors are so rich looking. The elves had such character and were of all sizes, ethnic groups, male and female. I had never seen elves like these. I teach elementary school and tried it out on second and third graders. They loved it and enjoyed the interview at the end. When I buy picture books for my students I think about what follow up activities that I will do. I had a writing and art activity after I read this book to the students. This book also appealed to me, as an adult. For example, the cockpit on Santa's Sleigh, very clever. This truly is a wonderful book that will be enjoyed and treasured by children and parents.

This is a really beautiful book that has true touches of humor. Grownups will enjoy it as well as children!