The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore and illustrations by Corinne Malvern

 What happens on the night before Christmas? Stockings are hung by the chimney with care, children are nestled all snug in their beds, and there's a visit from St. Nicholas. The poem attributed to Clement C. Moore has gone a long ways towards influencing modern ideas of Christmas and Santa Claus (fun fact: the words Santa Claus aren't used in the poem at all), and in this Little Golden Book edition illustrated by Corinne Malvern you can enjoy all of the sugarplums, all of the reindeer, and all of the Christmas cheer.

I had never realized just how this poem positions Santa as an elf-figure. He has a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer; he's called "a right jolly old elf." Sure, he lives at the North Pole and there are elves in his workshop, but I'm much more familiar with him as a man; I've not thought of him as an elf. Are there cultures that do? Anyway. There are a number of other Little Golden Books editions of The Night Before Christmas with different illustrators, but there's something about the old-style illustrations in the Corinne Malvern edition that particularly resonates with me. I like the fashions that the characters wear, and I like the different framing styles that are used around the areas of text.  The edition that I have is slightly older than the one pictured (not the 1949 original, but reissued in 1982), but it looks like it's been republished again in September 2011.The Night Before Christmas isn't something that's been a part of my family traditions to date (unless it's the Sesame Street version that's shown during "A Muppet Family Christmas" - you haven't experienced the poem until you've heard a Two-Headed Monster say "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night"), but for families looking to start their own traditions, this is a poem and a book with a lot of history behind it.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Find it at  IndieBound.

Read it with:
Frosty the Snow Man by Annie North Bedford
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer by Robert L. May
The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore and illustrated by Kathy Wilburn

Miracle on 34th Street by Valentine Davies

As someone who watches a great deal of Christmas movies, I would be hard pressed to name my absolute favourite. Is it A Brady Bunch Christmas? It's just so cheesy and wonderful! Elf? Sure, it's recent, but it does have that whimsy that a great Christmas movie needs. A Muppet Family Christmas? What could be better than all of the muppets together for the holidays? A Charlie Brown Christmas? Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? Frosty the Snowman? A Christmas Carol? There are just so many strong contenders. But if I was absolutely forced to name a favourite Christmas story, I think I might have to go with Miracle on 34th Street.

After spending many years enjoying the movie versions (both the original and the 1990s remake), this was the first time I'd read the written story. It wasn't published until after the original movie was released, but it doesn't seem to be an exact duplicate of the story. It's largely the same, but there are some minor differences - nothing that really changes the story in any way. It adds a bit of detail onto the mysterious character of Kris Kringle with a few pages dedicated to his story before he shows up at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. At just over 100 pages, it's not a long story; I think it would be most properly called a novella. The original 1940s edition does have some of the casual racism from the time (there's a brief reference to Cleo, the "colored maid"), but for the most part it holds up rather well. There's a timeless quality to the question of Santa Claus and the true meaning of Christmas. I don't know if reading the book is going to be come a holiday tradition for me in the same way that watching the movies has, but if you can find a copy of the book (particularly one of the original 1940s editions with its original design) it might be worth giving it a look, especially if you're a fan of any of the movie versions.




Find it at IndieBound.

Read it with:
The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
Christmas at the Movies edited by Mark Connelly
The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore

And Both Were Young by Madeleine L'Engle

Life has been changing too fast for Philippa. She desperately misses her mother and is still grieving her passing. She wants to be with her father, but instead he has sent her off to a boarding school in Switzerland. She doesn't get along with the other girls; she doesn't think she has anything in common with them. She's alone and miserable...and then she meets Paul, and everything changes.

And Both Were Young was originally published in the 1940s; it was republished in the 1980s and now again in 2011. The cover is decidedly modern (I'm not an historian, but did people really dress like that in post-war Europe?) but the text inside is all as Madeleine L'Engle originally intended (a foreward from her granddaughter explains how the original book was edited to remove some of the more romantic elements of the story). I think I liked this story even more knowing all of its history. Beyond the historical details, Flip's story is still relevant in today's world; sure, maybe few people are at an exclusive Swiss boarding school, but she's also dealing with mourning her mother, concern about a possible future step-parent, fitting in at school, loneliness and homesickness, caring about a troubled friend, and falling in love.

Find it at IndieBound.

Read it with:
Bloomability by Sharon Creech
Dreams of Significant Girlhood by Cristina Garcia
Camilla by Madeleine L'Engle

Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

Before I start, I have to come clean: before reading this book, all I could think about was this:

Marge: Bart, I'd like you to read this copy of ``Johnny Tremaine''. It's a book I read as a girl.
Bart: A book!? Pfffft.
Marge: I think you might like this. It's about a boy who goes to war. His hand is deformed in an accident.
Bart: Deformed? Why didn't you say so?They should call this book ``Johnny Deformed''!
(From The Simpsons.)

And then there is the time Peter Griffin of Family Guy was caught reading while intoxicated:



So that's what I was working with.

Johnny Tremain is a silversmith's apprentice in 1770s Boston. He's extremely talented...and extremely arrogant. Then his hand is injured in a silversmithing accident, and he is forced to find a new way of life. He befriends the nephew of a printer, who teachers him how to ride a horse - which comes in handy with the American Revolution right around the corner. Johnny quickly finds himself interacting with people like Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, and many other actual historical figures.

I was ready for the worst; the copy I was reading was old and the print was small-ish. But the story gets really exciting, and Esther Forbes has a really great way of keeping the action moving. I wanted to know what was going to happen to Johnny, even when I didn't like Johnny (he spends a lot of time trying to learn to control some of his worst habits). It's been awhile since I've studied American history so I only vaguely knew about the events they were describing (the specific details, that is), but that didn't really matter. It was a great read and one that would probably be enjoyed by any child looking for an exciting story with lots of action (as long as the edition looked a bit more relevant than the one above - the one I read - I know you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but...yeah). Of course, as with some pieces of historical fiction, the depiction of people of other races and ethnicities is not exactly sensitive, so there is that to consider, too.

Find it at IndieBound.

Read it with:
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
The Many Rides of Paul Revere by James Giblin
The Pox Party and The Kingdom on the Waves by M.T. Anderson