Christmas Books

This is a great heartwarming story for families at Christmas. I can't recommend it enough!

It strengthened the Christmas atmosphere in my classroom. My grade two and three students were intrigued by the introduction of Olive and a new team of reindeer. The use of humour combined with suspense and adventure captured the attention of every child in the classroom. It had everyone reading!!! A teacher`s dream. A story for children and adults of the twenty first century. Keep it up Michael

I have this book and I love it. It's a fun book for all ages. The story is unique and cute and I wouldn't be surprised to see it made into a movie someday like Rudolf.

This is a beautiful little book with a captivating heroine. "Olive" is written in a style which will appeal to children and adults alike, and the illustrations are delightful. It is time for a new Christmas story, and my hat's off to Michael Christie for producing one that I'm sure will become a classic. My nieces in England loved it!

My 7 year old son and I just finished reading Olive, the Orphan Reindeer. What a delightful story. Each year we read The Night Before Christmas, The Christmas Carol, or Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer, it was nice to discover a new title to add to our holiday reading. The press release stated that this book was geared toward the age group 9-12. My 7 year old read this book with ease and understanding. I agree with Michael, this book is for anyone who believe in Christmas.

Good Job, Are there other books available by this author?

The animated version of this wonderful book was called "The Wish that Changed Christmas" and can be found on VHS.

I sometimes forget about this book but every year when I go searching the shelves for an appropriate Christmas book to read to a small child I know I smile when I find this one. I have long been a fan of the author's books that were written for adults but I have been enamored of this particular story since I was about eight years old when my Mother ordered a copy through the school book club order forms. It is the story of chances being taken and following opportunities in the funniest of fashions. A child running away or toward something and a little doll wanting to be loved. It sounds like a rather simple story and in some ways it is but there is a very common theme that everyone wants to be loved and to love and this is a story of people arriving to that point.
While this edition does not have the red and green drawings I hold a certain nostalgia for; the illustrations by Barbara Cooney capture the gentle spirit of the story.
The author has such a talent for describing small details that any person (adult and child alike) can relate to so it is quite easy to read yourself into the story.
A genuinely charming book.

I am actually looking for the animated television special that was on about ten years ago-does anyone know what it was called? I couln't find it with the title of this book.

THANKS!

THE STORY OF HOLLY AND IVY is the tale of Ivy a small orphan girl who creates a pretend grandmother and then really tries to find someone who can be that real person for her. She leaves the orphanage at Christmas and is hopeful that her dreams will come true. She also longs for a beautiful doll and sees one in the window of a toy store. The doll's name is Holly and she has also been wishing; however, her wishes are for a little girl who will love her.

This book has everything; a toy store filled with wonderful toys that have personalities of their own, including a somewhat sinister owl named Abracadabra. We also meet Mrs. Jones who is lonely for a child and decides to decorate her house for Christmas as if she was expecting a child to visit. Her husband is a policeman who finds Ivy and brings her home. The book is appropriate for children ages 5-10 and I think that most children would love the story.

This is a very colorful book with lovely illustrations by Barbara Cooney. The author is Rumer Godden who is one of my favorite writers. Over the last few years, I've been locating any of her books that I can find for my library, including her stories for children. I'm writing reviews in the hope that her beautiful stories will continue to be read.

Even at 39, the end of this story brings me to tears....a sweet and wonderful book that I delight in sharing with my own little girl.

A wonderful holiday story with a very happy ending.

This is the most lovely x-mas story I ever read! It's about not giving up on your wishes, be bold and don't have the attention on you.
If you like this story, look for a book of Ariel and Shya Kane, they have found a way of living, that is beyond all I could immagine - all it takes, like in this book, is courage.

Get the movie. Get the book. Enjoy them together. Fun and quirky.

This is my favorite of the Breathed series of children's tales. I have a six year old son and this will be my fourth year of being sure this is a part of his Christmas season. As well as, throwing this title in several times throughout the year. A very touching experience to share this story with my son.

Our family absolutely LOVES all the Berkeley Breathed children's books. There's just one problem. If you're trying to read it to your children, it's difficult not to be laughing so hard you cry. Story and illustrations are just hilarious!!! My daughter now reads to children in after-school programs and it's a definite winner with them. Very entertaining.

If you purchase this book for the illustrations alone you would still have an incomparable treasure but wait there is more, because this is a story that is a treasure in itself.

Opus wants a pair of wings that work. But in his mind wings only work if you can fly. It's not until Santa's sleigh is sinking in the ocean that Opus gets to use his flippers and fly through the water and save Santa and his sleigh. It's then that he realizes he has something useful.

This is a story that's about recognizing the value of what you have in mind, body, and spirit. The courage and spirit to use what you have to go where help is needed and whenever possible, help save the day.

I blame the book industry's insatiable deluge of new and not very inspiring books thrust onto an already overburdened market place for burying classics like, "An Opus Christmas Story."

This is a book that every child would love immensely, one they would treasure and one the parents would not have to dig so hard to find the life lessons to discuss with their children after the read.

This was purchased for my nephew and he loved it. Since he lives in the moutains, it was a story he related too. He liked it so much, I ordered another one for a gift and it was also well received.

This is a wonderful story that shows the importance of keeping family traditions alive and about the courage it sometimes takes to carry on in the most difficult of times. You will absolutely love Ruthie and will warm up to her really thoughtful and loving mother. This is a story very close to my heart since I grew up close to the Appalachian Mountains and remember how excited we were at Christmastime--- to just be together.

I bought this for my kindergarten granddaughter as her Christmas book. I wanted something a little different from the typical Christmas book and this one delivered. She really enjoyed the book.

I have been collecting Christmas books for my family for years and this was my 2007 pick. The illustrations are lovely and the story simple and sweet. Very interesting for those who enjoy Appalacian literature.

A heartfelt, inspiring story about Christmas in the Appalachian Mountains. We live in Asheville, NC and our young children love us reading this book to them over and over!

This is such a cute book, and my children love reading it over and over. Your kids will definitely want to leave cookies for Santa after reading it. A must have!

My 3 1/2 yr. old daughter really likes this book! Highly recommend! Understands that even Santa can have a bad day but after a "love you" note from children with a gift of cookies, Santa loses his grumpies!
Savannah

This book is just plain fun to read out loud. You can go slow and soft and get faster and louder until you and your child are yelling, "I'm a grumpy Santa Claus!" I have even read this one without my 3-year-old around. I bought it for everybody I knew with kids last year.

Excellent book for kids, and at least humorous for adults reading the book to the kids, at least for the first couple of times out of the hundreds you will be.

As a substitute teacher, I picked this book up a couple of days ago in a "special ed" class to read to 6 boys (grades K-2). It's very easy to read aloud and it kept the kids' attention even though they'd already heard it 2 or 3 times. It's a very humorous story and it even teaches a lesson!

The book is great. My son loved it. Sadly though, it was ordered with the guarantee that it would arrive before Christmas, and it showed up on the 26th. Amazon has been non-responsive and has ignored my correspondence (e-mail & snail mail). So, I would recomend buying the book, just not through Amazon.

This book is magical for kids - I just bought a second one to make sure both of my sons have this book when they are grown and have their own children. The story is about Peef - a bear that Santa makes by hand. Peef is Santa's right-hand "bear", but really longs to be given as a gift to a boy or girl, but he just can't bring himself to tell Santa. Santa figures it out and decides to give him to a child on Christmas Eve. Great lesson about love. Definitely buy the stuffed Peef they sell with the books and then place it in bed with your child Christmas Eve. After the kids have read the book several times leading up to Christmas, and then wake up to Peef on Christmas morning, they feel so special. They believe Santa decided they were the one who was special enough to receive his special bear.

I am so looking forward to reading this to my kids! It really is a cute book.

The book is a great story and even better when you hear the author read it the way he wrote it. It is a great story about Santa making a friend and eventually giving his friend away to a little child.

Santa is up to something! He's asked all of his elves to pick out their favorite fabric and bring it to him. Just what is Santa doing? Why he's making a multi-colored Christmas Bear, that when the final stitch is completed and with a push from Santa's finger, the bear speaks his own name...Peef.

Peef is an important bear. He is Santa's chief assistant and dearly loves Santa. But what Peef really wants is to belong to and bring happiness to a special child. That doesn't seem to be Peef's fate until one Christmas Eve when Santa is one toy short. Peef's dream is realized as he is left behind to bring one special child great happiness.

This is a wonderful Christmas story! It wraps up the gift of love, sacrifice and the sense of belonging all in one little bear. The illustrations are spectacular and will draw children and adults alike into the story.

Armchair Interviews says: This book, first introduced in 1995, is sure to become a classic and treasured by all children everywhere who dream of loving that special bear.

I thought that this book was interesting, sad, and happy altogether. This book is around Christmas time, it has to do with babies and people dieing. It sounds like you wouldn't want to read it, but it really isn't that sad. Thats I recamend you to read this book.

Starry Starry Night is about a girl's mom who's pregnant. Her daughter and husband are really exited and ready for the baby to come, but when its time for her to have the baby, they find out that the baby won't live too long because only half of her brain developed. They try to donate her organs to other babies who needed it, but, once they all decided that it was right they found out they couldn't do it because once the baby had died her organs would be useless.
My favorite part of the story is when they are waiting at the hospital because all of her friends were there to support her. You should not read this book if you don't like sad endings, because the ending is sad.

i read this book, and i thought that it was good! at the sad parts in the book, i cried, because they were very heartbreaking! if u don't have this book, i recommend getting it!
P.S. read all of the other books by Lurlene McDaniel. they r very good!

In "Starry, Starry Night," Lurlene McDaniel has written three more wonderful stories that will without a doubt make you cry.

The first story "Christmas Child," is about a fifteen year old girl named Melanie, and her mother is pregnant. Melanie is extremely excited to be an older sister, and has already finished painting the nursery and buying Christmas presents for the baby. Five days before Christmas, her mom goes into labor - and Jessica is born. But there's one problem, Jessica has a terminal illness that can't be fixed...she will die within a few days. Even though Jessica is only in the family's lives for a few days, she changes each of them forever.
This story made me cry, it's a great one!

"Last Dance" is my favorite of the 3 stories. Brenda gets a phone call from a Mrs. Drake, and she's asking her to go out with her son, Doug. Doug has cancer, and his wish is to go out with Brenda, because, according to him "She's the most beautiful girl in the world." Brenda really begins to fall for Doug, but, will it all work out in the end?

"Kathy's Life" is the last story in the book, and my least favorite. Ellie has it all: the boyfriend, the popularity, and...oh yeah, the divorced parents. But when Ellie and Kathy are assigned to do an English project together, they both change, for better. Kathy is the live in nanny for a young couple's son, Christian. When Ellie and Kathy begin to talk, Ellie finds out a big secret, about why Kathy is the way she is.

All the stories in this book are good, but Ellie's (Kathy's Life) story is pretty racy at first...it's pretty different than any other Lurlene McDaniel book in that sense.

Overall grade: A-

This book is awesome. I sat down almost a whole day and just read this book. I love how it had three different stories in it. I loved all of them i really liked the baby one and i wish tha she would like write like what happens afterwards and so on. She is such a good author i wonder how she gets all these inspiration.

This story is not so much about laughter as it is about small people caring about saving laughter in certain parts of the world when the Shell of Laughter is stolen by an evil spirit named Killjoy Crosspatch.

The fairies learn what laughter is made of including eighteen tickle feathers, the sound of puppies barking, a two-part joke, Christmas snow, and a few other things. They also learn how laughter is spread around the world and that we must have some sorrow as a balance in the world in order to know what laughter and happiness are.

I like the flow and length of this book because it held my kids' interest and was a quick two-night bedtime read. My son is four and liked the story as much as my daughter, six. I have read them the first two books in this series. My son wanted to know if the brownies were going to get to lead some of the adventures instead of just helping the fairies. I won't be telling him that it looks like that isn't going to happen since this is The "Fairy" Chronicles because I want him to continue to enjoy the stories..

This is a good Smile and Feel-Good book and we will be reading it again. I recommend it for kids of all ages.

I baught these books for my daughter who just learned to read she will be in first grade this year and just loves fairies. She loves these books as well as drawing and pretending shes the characters in the stories. I would highly recommend it to any one whose child can read at least at a 2nd grade level and loves fairies and using their imagination.

The leprechaun in this story might make you laugh. If he doesn't, Snickers the hedgehog will. You might also get a kick out of the things laughter is made of, I did. All of these fun things are inside the shell of laughter and mix themselves up in correct proportions to produce laughter. An elf then spreads the laughter over the world using the winds of the world. And because he does this, we can all have a laugh. Great story!

These are not the fairies of yesteryear. Nor are they ultra-mod or futuristic. Creative use of characters, good writing and a nice flow of events make this an enjoyable book. Recommended.

Thistle and the Shell of Laughter is a lovely fairytale story about fairies, but it is also a tale of the need for balance in our world. Two concepts are prominent in this book. First, that tears and laughter must both exist and second, that without sorrow we wouldn't know what happiness was. There is also a clever balance of characters in this book, real balancing fantasy (hedgehog, elk, rabbit, tortoise, bird vs. unicorns, elf, gnome, witch, fairies). The Stone of Tears balances the Shell of Laughter. The elf twins balance each other (Staid vs. Blithe).

Many fairytales don't present their lessons and themes as well as this one does. I was impressed when I read the second book in this series by how small the Web of Dreams was. I am even more impressed with this story because it is extremely clever. I don't believe a child will be able to pinpoint the theme, but will enjoy the story. As an adult reader, I find myself reminiscing about the fairytales I read as a child because this is a new version of some of those classic and clever stories.

This is a heart warming story about a small Christmas tree that is not perfect, because it shares from the heart.
This story was read to my child at school, and it was liked so much that she wanted one for Christmas.

The little book impresses children (and adults) with the true spirit of Christmas, giving of one's self. The illustrations are beautiful and the text well written. It has become one of my favorite Christmas stories.

This book has a great message for young and old alike! This is a book for anyone who has performed acts of service and wondered, "Does it count for anything?" And the answer is yes. Every act of kindness has a lasting impact on the giver as well as the receiver.

This story is beautifully told and illustrated. This book is a great addition to any home library--it is the kind of book you want to own not just borrow from the public library.

Also recomended:Christmas Gifts, Christmas Voices--another poignant story about the rewards of giving...

I wanted a Christmas tree book to read to my kids when we went to cut down our tree. I had never heard of this book, but I chose it from the library because it was about a Christmas tree. It is a wonderful heartwarming story. It has everything my fou-year-old (and me) loves. It has animals, a queen and castle, and a touching ending. I am going to purchase one for our family to make it a tradition on the day we go get our tree and I will likely purchase a few more as gifts as well.

A simple answer to the question in the book title -- because in imperfection you find beauty and grace and wonder. The this story is full of such things.

This book is one of our family favorites -- a classic we return to and will carry with us in memories. Reading this book together gives us the chance to stop in a very busy season and wonder about things bigger and more important than wrapping and running. The message that defines perfection is a life lesson we all need.

I will be purchasing this book to give to my children's families as they marry and begin their own Christmas traditions.

This is an excellant book by an author who best describes the feelings of this amazing film.
The book has a great mixture of photoes I have never seen before and also, a lot of interesting stories about the cast and and the making of the film.
I would certainly recommend this book to anyone who loves the film( Its a wonderfull life) and my praise to the author in writing something that I know both my family and myself will read and read again.
A great buy

If you love "It's a Wonderful Life" (and who doesn't?), then you'll LOVE this book! I was stunned to learn about what happened to the cast and where the Bailey kids are today and what they look like in more recent years. No other book offers the pure nostalgia factor like this one. The author gives us some amazing details about deleted scenes, as well as photographs that have surfaced showing these rare behind-the-scenes glimpses into scenes that never made the final cut. I loved the photo of Henry Travers (Clarence the Angel) in full color, not long before he died. What a treat this book is!! And the special message from Jimmy Stewart at the beginning of the book is pure magic! If you are a fan of this film, you won't be disappointed! This book is the perfect gift for any friends who love the movie, too. I've already ordered several and am giving them out this holiday!

Cox's "It's a Wonderful Life: A Memory Book" is an excellent addition to the movie buff's collection, and to fans of this exceptional film. The book is packed with stunning photographs (many never seen before), interesting tid-bits about the making-of, backstory on not only the fine performances of James Stewart, Donna Reed and Lionel Barrymore, but the character actors that helped make Capra's touching film so memorable and the holiday favorite it has become--almost 60 years later. It is well-researched and richly-written. This is a perfect gift year-round for any reason. It is one of Cox's best!

I have to admit that I wasn't much of an "It's a Wonderful Life" fan....until now. I had the pleasure of meeting Karolyn Grimes (little ZuZu Bailey) recently. She is such a warm and lovely person and spoke of IAWL with such passion that I bought the DVD the next night and watched it with new eyes. Now I'm hooked.

I was so delighted to find this book, to learn even more about this classic movie. After reading the book, I had to watch the DVD again.

Even if you're just a casual viewer of the movie, you'll still love this book. It's incredibly well-researched and jam-packed with beautiful photographs. Stephen Cox has a way with words. You feel like you're sitting with an old friend. His books are like comfort-food for the mind!

There are plenty of surprises in this book. You'll read what director Frank Capra and the players themselves have to say about making "It's a Wonderful Life," and you'll discover some interesting names among those who were almost cast. You'll also learn that some of the film's legends are true, while others are not. For example, while it is true that Carl Switzer (Alfalfa from the "Our Gang" comedies) was the rascal who opened the gym floor exposing the swimming pool beneath, it is NOT true that muppets Bert and Ernie were named as an homage to Bert the cop and Ernie the cab driver -- that's just a coincidence. In spite of the book's rather crowded layout and lackluster production, if you love "It's a Wonderful Life" and/or if you collect IAWL memorabilia, you'll want to have this book.