Books for Giving 2018
Pity poor old Santa Claus; in another boom year for children’s books there’s a vast array of potential Christmas gift books – fiction, non-fiction, poetry, treasuries and more, by talented new writers as well as well-known favourites. Without the help of a single elf, Andrea Reece has picked out the books you’ll enjoy giving most, and that they’ll enjoy receiving.
Do what they say on the tin books
It’s a bold move to pin your colours to the Christmas mast by setting stories on Christmas Day or including Christmas in the title, but these are all good enough to conjure up the Christmas magic long after the last mince pie has been eaten. In Pip and Posy and the Christmas Tree by Axel Scheffler, our two friends are decorating the tree with edible treats, but it’s all too tempting for Pip: with the tree bare and Pip feeling sick, Posy makes things right again in a story that’s full of humorous details as well as a bit of early maths, and big on friendship and forgiveness. The Christmas Extravaganza Hotel by Tracey Cordery and Tony Neal is another heart-warming Christmas-set story. Bear is settling down for a nice quiet festive season when he’s interrupted by the arrival of Frog, ready for a 5 star Christmas experience – the trouble is, he’s read the map wrong and is hundreds of miles from his hotel. Kind- hearted Bear invites Frog to stay, and then sets out to create the Christmas his new friend dreamed of. Funny and surprising, this delivers the true Christmas message. You really should
start reading How Winston
Delivered
Christmas on 1st December: an advent story in a book, it tells how little mouse Winston delivers a lost letter to Father Christmas,
finding himself a cosy new
home in the process. It would be great fun to follow Winston’s adventures as they unfold day by day and Alex T Smith’s illustrations add to the drama of it all. Cleverly, chapters are interspersed with Christmas craft activities too. Last Stop on the Reindeer Express also hinges on delivery of a letter but this time it’s to an absent parent as Mia travels by reindeer magically to visit her daddy far away. Peep-through cut-outs and flaps to lift heighten the sense of magic as does Karl James Mountford’s folk-art style illustrations. For digger devotees, Construction Site on Christmas Night is an absolute must-have: Excavator, Bulldozer, Crane, Dump Truck and Cement Mixer are finishing a very special Christmas build, and each of them finds a present as they turn off their engines when the work is complete. The text is delivered in lively rhyme and the vehicles are realistic and characterful. Finally, for the very young, The Twinkly Twinkly Christmas Tree by Sam Taplin and Alison Friend is irresistible – a very sweet story lit up by real lights on every scene, gasps of surprise guaranteed with each page turn.
6 Books for Keeps No.233 November 2018
Stories that keep on giving
Christmas is a time for returning to old favourites, particularly those that make bedtime reading the best part of the day. Walker have reissued Kevin Crossley-Holland’s masterly collection of British and Irish folk-tales Between the Worlds, with new illustrations by Frances Castle. It includes 50 different stories, some dark and eerie, others joyful and life-affirming; each one is perfectly told and this is a must-own. Certain readers will also enjoy Laurence Housman’s esoteric versions of Sindbad the Sailor and Other Stories from the Arabian Nights. As Marina Warner says in her introduction, these are stories that ‘wonder at the inequities of existence and pose open questions.’ They have been reissued by the Bodleian Library with Edmund Dulac’s heady, sumptuous illustrations.
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