On Story Bent

I kept wanting to like this one soooo much! And actually, I did like it -- about half of it rather enormously. The problem: the whole premise of a 'simple Christmas' in many ways typifies much of how I actually grew up celebrating Christmas and quite a few things I incorporate now in our own home. So therein lies the problem, because the little protagonist in the book isn't sure she'll enjoy it all -- the "focusing less on getting and more on giving", the making of homemade gifts and the giving away of cookies -- (and then, of course, she comes to find out that she has a marvelous time and it's all wonderful ;)), but you can see the issues that might create for a child who hasn't ever experienced... I don't know... a "normal crazy Christmas" (I guess ;)). It's all about frame of reference.  And note: personally, we're not against the purchasing of gifts and the layering on of festivities, because on the flip side we also don't

I wasn't planning to do a 3 Strikes post this month, but we're decluttering during Advent and I'm trying to be diligent about dealing with things as they come up, so... ;) Someone gifted this to us years ago (which was so so kind of them!!) and it's been living at the bottom of our Christmas book box ever since while I tried to figure out what to do with it (it is a classic after all). It does have a bit of a nostalgic Narnia feel to it, i.e. with the basic concept + the ending, so that's interesting. But.... the time has come. In short, it's a definitive Santa book, and (while we appropriately honor the memory of the faithful Christian saint Nicholas who ran his race before us), we don't do Santa, and the whole point of this title is Santa-ness, so..... yes, this one's being donated.

Set just as fall is tipping into winter, this is a perfect story for this time of year. In true Jan Brett style, there's so much going on in the illustrations! We notice something new each time. And, as always, they're just gorgeous. My one caveat is that it has a bit of a secret ending... so still thinking over the pros and cons of that, to be quite honest. Basically, the characters in the story don't have all the information, but (due to the illustrations, mostly) we as the readers know the whole story, which basically all boils down to an easy mistake and a case of misappropriated credit. On the flip side of all that, it is thought provoking and does give good, age accessible and appropriate material for discussion. (And the small person definitely gets and loves the joke. ;)) So there are my rambling and indecisive thoughts on this one... Definitely one you might want to keep an eye out for and flip through at your local library!