Saturday, December 19, 2009

Is a Book a True Gift?

My mother read to us beside the Christmas tree every night from the time the tree was decorated until Christmas night. Then the holidays changed gear, visits from the relatives took over, and this lovely time together was packed away with the tree ornaments for the next year. I'd forgotten about this until I read THE TRUE GIFT and it made me think this was the perfect book for reading aloud to one child or the whole family, maybe as a holiday ritual before bedtime or just after supper.

THE TRUE GIFT, A Christmas story by Patricia MacLachlan, Illustrated by Brian Floca. Written by the Newbery Medal winning author of SARA, PLAIN AND TALL, this is the tender story of a young boy’s belief that no one should be alone at Christmas and that even cows have feelings of loss and loneliness. Author MacLachlan has a gift for telling her stories in few words, always the right words, and this book is only 81 pages long, divided into ten chapters. Brian Floca's illustrations evoke the wintry magic that makes a child feel like Christmas must be coming and makes him certain that it will.

What is a true gift? Ask your little listeners.

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