“It was snowing. It was always snowing at Christmas.”
One book that I always turn to in December is Trina Schart Hyman’s presentation of Dylan Thomas’s wonderful prose poem A Child’s Christmas in Wales. Thomas’s almost achingly evocative descriptions of the Christmas of a small boy, sometime in the nebulous past, are perfectly matched by Hyman’s glorious illustrations, which show the boy’s eccentric, yet all-too-real relatives and friends.
No other story and no other illustrations have ever so perfectly captured the hilarity of holiday relatives, the conversations of little boys, and the feeling of world-wide silence after a snowfall. Undeniably the most perfect Christmas book ever.
Posted by: Sarah
It’s the season for spooky books, and for kids who want a scare, ONLY a spooky book will do. Some children, though, want their creepy books to be creepy with a difference–not just cheap scares and cliffhangers, but something atmospheric that draws a reader fully into the world of the book. Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz is perfect for those readers. Schlitz takes us into the Gothic, foggy 150-years-ago world of Lizzie Rose and Parsifal, two children who work for Grisini, a not-at-all-nice puppeteer. When Grisini is hired to perform for the birthday party of rich Clara, a girl who seems to have everything (except siblings, all of whom have died), Lizzie Rose and Parsifal think their fortunes are looking up. Unfortunately, first Clara, and then Grisini disappear, and their lives take a turn for the desperate.
As far as Deza knows, hers is the only family in Gary, Indiana with their own family motto. The Malone’s like to say that “We are a family on a journey to a place called Wonderful.” The nice thing is, they really are. Their journey though, is rather circuitous with more than their share pitfalls and dead ends. 
This story is about the year after Arkansas was forced to integrate their high schools. The Little Rock Nine, nine African-American teens, braved the crowds, the publicity, the hate and the racism to take that first step toward equality in the Little Rock public school system. The author thought that that was what she was going to write about when she went to Little Rock. But when she started talking to people, all they could talk about was the year after the Little Rock Nine, when the governor of the state closed the schools in order to avoid integration.
This book is the second in a series. The first book is titled Faraway Island. The first book won the Batchelder award in 2010 and this book took a Batchelder Honors award this year. I did not read the first book and I still enjoyed this one.
I like to reread The Long Winter in January or February – after the holidays and during that long stretch when winter feels most cold and bleak to me. It tells the story of how Laura Ingalls and her family survived the harsh winter of 1880-81, enduring seven months of near constant blizzards in their little house in town in the Dakota Territory. Through this winter, the Ingalls family is together but cut off from all supplies (the trains can’t run) and often even cut off from their neighbors living yards away. The Long Winter tells of stories that I cannot even imagine; like how, when the first blizzard hits, Laura and her classmates must leave the schoolhouse and make their way home not a mile away, yet all the while the threat of being lost out on the prairie is imminent, for they cannot see in front of them and apart from their little prairie town there is nothing for miles and miles. It tells of the kind of resourcefulness Laura’s family displays, making kindling out of twisted bunches of hay when there is no firewood to be had. And it tells of how Laura’s family manages to create moments of joy throughout the dark months, making a pie out of green pumpkins and celebrating a festive Christmas with what little food and treats they have, song, and stories.
After a fall season full of innovative and original new fantasies for children comes a fairy tale retelling that is both original AND traditional.
Maks is a “newsie” in New York City in 1893. He is selling The World. His parents are Danish immigrants and his family is struggling to make ends meet. Every penny counts. One day Maks is cornered in an alley by a gang of teenagers who are trying to drive off the newsies. Maks decides to fight but is losing when suddenly a shapeless pile of rags becomes an attack force with a stick. When the attack is over, the gang members have been run off and Maks realizes that the person who saved him is a skinny, smelly, raggedly dressed, homeless girl. He decides to take her home for the protection she can give him and also to repay her with a meal. The same day he brings Willa home, he finds out that his oldest sister who works as a maid at the Waldorf has been accused of theft and is in the prison called the Tombs. Thus begins an adventure for the homeless girl and the newsie. They find an odd and ailing detective who has Maks do his investigating for him at the Waldorf. In the process, Maks discovers some clues and also learns something about Willa’s family.
A late 2011 release, I think Pie by Sarah Weeks may have squeaked in as my favorite book of 2011. Generally being a fan of both action and angst in my reading choices, I often lose interest in books with recipes, books that have exceedingly happy endings or books that feature unbelievably nice characters, but somehow this book contained all of those elements and managed to keep me enthralled. 
For a certain type of child, there is nothing better than anything tiny. Tiny books, tiny toys, tiny leaves and flowers. These are the children that tend to have elaborately tended dollhouses–no matter how patchily put together–and shelves full of miniature ‘found’ objects.
