Monday, December 5, 2016

Books of December - Some Favorites!

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis.  Cold, frosty winter stretches through Narnia, as the White Queen reigns.  But when the Pevensie children step through the wardrobe into the frozen land, they bring hope and call forth the lion, Aslan, to fight for Good.   Pauline Baynes' illustration of the lamp post in the snowy forest would make a GREAT holiday card.

Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby.  Solveig, her brother who is crown prince, and her older sister are trapped in a fortress at the end of a frozen fjord.  They wait news of their father's victory in battle.   As the winter stretches on, and on, tensions and suspicions grow.  Solveig watches her father's storyteller control the moods of the entrapped warriors and royal family, and stir them up.  And she learns from him.  Treachery is afoot. Can Solveig's new found voice stem the mutiny?  Storytelling and winter- two of my favorite things.

A Certain Small Shepherd by Rebecca Caudill.  A young boy in Appalachia has never spoken, even though the local doctor can find nothing wrong with him.  When he gets to play a shepherd in the school's Christmas pageant, the boy is heartbroken that snow cancels the performance.  Then strangers arrive at his family's poor home.  OK.  I cannot tell you how very, very, very much I love this book.  Period.
Also, I love William Pene Du Bois.  There, my secret crush is revealed.

1 comment:

  1. Christmas Eve reading always includes A Certain Small Shepherd. We read it when I was a child

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