I had a delightful holiday season this year, in which I did not (obviously) worry about keeping up with my reviewing blog. Strawberry, aged 3, and Raisin, who recently turned 8, enjoyed a book advent calendar in which we unwrapped a different favorite picture book each day in December leading up to Christmas. This made

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Wait, is that snow I see outside? Nope, it’s the sprinkler and kiddie pool. But nevertheless, it’s time for a Christmas in July book review! Santa Clauses by Bob Raczka (Carolrhoda Books, September 2014) is a great book for the upcoming holiday season. With 25 different haiku poems, Santa prepares himself and his workshop for the

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This is my last week and last post of sharing Cybils Fiction Picture Book Nominees, so I’ve got to go for a miscellany this week. Sub-topics: Roads and Trucks; Fine Arts; Non-Western Traditions; and, of course, Christmas, Christian, and Winter Books. Roads and Trucks Along a Long Road by Frank Viva (Little Brown, 2011) is

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Most people have heard of A Christmas Carol (see my review), but few are familiar with Charles Dickens’ four other Christmas novellas. I read his other four novellas this season. Some of the novellas were more interesting than others. The superiority of A Christmas Carol makes it clear to me why it has lasted as a

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I mentioned previously that I love the Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets series. So I ordered myself the volume Everyman’s volume of Christmas Poems in honor of the holiday. (Thank goodness for Amazon’s Marketplace where I could get it for half price!). I really enjoyed a retreat in to poetry about my favorite holiday and season,

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I reread A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens just about every Christmas. I love the story of personal redemption as Ebenezer Scrooge learns from his past, recognizes the facts of the present, and learns to hope for the best in the future. For me, the appeal of this ghostly tale is the recognition that I

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