When Carter was little, I began buying Christmas picture books for him each year, and I continued that tradition after we had Ethan and then Jude. We have accumulated so many now that they won't all fit in the wooden box I display them in, so buying new ones every year has wained a bit. It has to be a pretty good Christmas book for me to buy it now.
I asked Jude tonight to pick out some of his very favorites, and I wanted to record his choices. I am going to link them here using Goodreads. I also included a few of my favorites as well.
I store the majority of our Christmas books in a wooden box that I picked up years ago in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.
Right now, the box is on the floor under the tree. I will probably leave it there even after I get the tree skirt down and clean up the needles that have fallen off the tree. It will remain under the tree as long as Dax (the 9-month-old lab) leaves it alone.
Jude's favorites for 2019 (he chose these from memory since we just got them out for this year):
Jude love, love, loves The Mother Bruce series. Ryan T. Higgins is a genius, and his Mother Bruce series makes me and Jude laugh every time we read it! As a librarian, I recommend this whole series to other teachers and students all the time. It is probably my most recommended picture book series.
I consider this a classic Christmas story. All of my boys have enjoyed it over the years. We also own the original movie narrated by Boris Karloff and the Jim Carrey version from 2000. Last year we went to see the 2018 animated version in theaters. I probably need to pick that one up for us to have in our Christmas movie collection. We love all things Grinch.
I raise boys, they have loved any kind of underpants humor starting at a very young age. The whole Love, Underpants series by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort is such a fun series for anyone who loves good, wholesome underpants humor.
This is a newer copy of the original 1975 version. I love that it has the original 1975 illustrations and text. There are many different Night Before Christmas stories out there, but this one will always be our favorite.
This is another cute one! How Santa Got His Job gives a perfectly logically explanation of how Santa became the man he is today. Santa didn't always know what he wanted to be when he grew up, so he tried out different jobs: mail carrier, circus performer, and chimney sweep. All those attempts of job hunting helped him design the job he truly wanted. Such a creative, fun story that kids will definitely buy into.
Anything that Chris Van Allsburg writes and illustrates is beautiful and thought-provoking. I have seen his books used in classrooms K-12 as a jumping-off point to a lesson and to encourage students to speak about their opinions of the text and illustrations. He creates such lovely, lovely stories. The Polar Express is one I can read and look at repeatedly. I always feel like I find something new every time Jude and I read it. The movie is excellent as well and one that Jude plays on repeat this time of year.
Duck may be one of Jude's favorite book characters. He loves how smart and sneaky Duck is in all of Farmer Brown's Barnyard Tales. This whole series makes us laugh and also makes Jude and I stop and have conversations about some of the things going on in the stories, explanations that help him build vocabulary and background knowledge.
This is another of mine and Jude's favorites. It is full of beautiful illustrations, and the story is a fun explanation of why snowmen begin to look kind of droopy and forlorn the day after you build them. Another reason Jude loves this whole Snowmen series is that on every page, there are hidden pictures drawn into the scenes. I think most of them contain a hidden cat, T-Rex, bunny, and a Santa face, and they are HARD to find. Jude and I spend lots of time searching these books for the hidden pictures.
Carter and Ethan found Walter Wick's Can You See What I See? series years ago and began collecting as many as they could get their hands on. Jude will sit staring at the pictures looking for all the things listed in the story.
I love his choices, but I also wanted to add a few of my own. My favorites have a whole lot to do with stories I remember my Mama and Daddy reading to me as a child. All three of these books are the original ones that I had as a child and are books that I continue to treasure. Because of that, they are not in the Christmas book box on floor because I am not about to chance Dax sinking his teeth into them.
I have read this one and had this one read to me over a dozen times in my lifetime. I have a deep love for the Herdman children. I know children like Herdman's, and I sometimes think that our own boys are the Herdman's (especially when they were younger, and we were trying to keep them still and quiet during church). I wish every church could be inundated by a whole herd of Herdman's and to feel the true spirit of Christmas take over. I love this book!
The Christmas Book by Donna Kelly
This book is so old that there is no image available on Goodreads. I love this book for all the sentimental reasons. I love my mother's handwriting across the title page that shows that my Great Grandmother Taylor gave this to me for my second Christmas. I love that it is a little Golden Book & that in 1978 it cost 49 cents. I also love the beautiful illustrations and the retelling of the Christmas story.
This is another sentimental favorite and probably explains why our kids love a good "I Spy"/hidden picture kind of book. My mother possibly purchased this book through Weekly Reader around 1981. I remember her reading it aloud and me trying to make her wait while I located all the Twelve Days of Christmas objects on each and every page. I love all the little animals in the story and how they portray the Twelve Days of Christmas. This is still one I enjoy reading and looking at every year.
Speaking of the Twelve Days of Christmas, to purchase all the items from the song at 2018 prices (2019 prices were not available when I started looking) Forbes said it would cost you $39,094.93. Wow!
Here is my favorite version of the song being performed. I share this with my students every year. It always makes us laugh. I love creative, fun people!
Thank you all for sticking with me for the entire post. I hope you found a fantastic book to add to your collection, but most of all, I hope my post triggered a fond memory or encouraged you to laugh.
No comments:
Post a Comment