Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Our Christmas Must-Reads

Maybe it's the teacher in me, but I just love a good theme then finding books to fit accordingly. And the winter/Christmas theme is one of my favorites! We have a special basket set aside for our library books {in the hopes of avoiding late fines} and for this month, I added our Christmas-y ones too. Here's E's favorite from this year...

I bought this cute little board book last year and Ezra loves it. It's an adorable, rhyming tale sharing how snowmen celebrate Christmas.

Another one of his total favorites. I know Gma and Gpa have read this to him many many times throughout this past year, which may have fostered his love for it now. He requests this book while he rides his horse {the big Swenson chair} and will 'sing' some of the words with me. And, of course, I love that it's by an Ezra too.

 This was an awesome but surprising find at our library. It's another song book, but the illustrations are amazing. I wasn't too keen on the cover, but after going through the whole book, I loved it! It depicts the Nativity story in beautiful blues, grays, and whites. And there's one scene with Mary nursing baby Jesus with angels, Joseph, and the sheep that just so precious. Something about it just hit close to home and brought the story to life. I think I know the whole "he came to earth as a helpless baby", but to see that simple scene of nursing him made it that much more real. Oh, yeah, he was a baby and had to be fed. Plus, it's a great way to share a Christmas Carol's meaning through its pictures. I think I may have to add this one to our personal collection.


This one is like a "duh!" book this year. He totally getting into the train-loving stage. Ezra first saw the movie with his cousins down in Orange County and has since requested it many times. I picked this one up at the library too just to make sure he'd like it before buying it. It was an instant hit. And Chris Van Allsburg is one of my favorite favorite children's authors. He packs in SO much into his books! My 5th graders did a ton of literary analysis with his books and could easily write a response to literature essay too. So good for developing higher levels of thinking!

Ezra just got this one for his birthday and already we love it. It's by the same author as the Jesus Storybook Bible. A beautiful story about how all the animals are awaiting the Prince of Peace!


This is one of my books from childhood that my mom gave me. It's a completely silly story and sometimes it feels like the rhyme is forced, but he likes it. And I do too, but just for sentimental reasons. ;)

Any other good books we should know about??

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I LOVE Mortimer's Christmas Manger. Such a sweet little story!