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The Night of Las Posadas – Tomie DePaola

The author’s note at the beginning of “The Night of Las Posadas” tells us that posada means “inn.” The story in this book is about an old Spanish tradition of remembering Mary and Joseph’s search for a place to stay the night Baby Jesus was born. High in the mountains above Santa Fe, the villagers have been busy preparing for Las Posadas. Lupe and her new husband, Roberto, have been chosen to portray Mary and Joseph, and Lupe’s aunt Angie couldn’t be more proud. Angie has been in charge of this night for many years and has trained the singers … Continue reading →

Ben’s Christmas Carol – Toby Forward

In “Ben’s Christmas Carol,” we meet Tim and Ben, two mice from two very different worlds. To Tim, frost in the air means another day that he must fight for his survival. To Ben, it means that Christmas is coming, and a feast with lots of good things for him to eat. However, Ben doesn’t know just how blessed he is. Christmas is just another day, after all – another day of food and nibbling. There’s nothing all that special about it, really. When he passes Tim on the street, he doesn’t pay any attention to how cold and hungry … Continue reading →

How Brown Mouse Kept Christmas – Clyde Watson

It’s Christmas Eve, and everyone is running around getting ready for Christmas, hanging up their stockings and putting up the last minute decorations. They sang carols and then all the children went to bed. They could hear the grown-ups moving around downstairs, but soon the whole house was quiet and everyone was fast asleep. Meanwhile, in the attic, the mice were excited about Christmas. Christmas means crumbs! They had spent the day letting the cat chase them so he’d be too tired to chase them tonight when they crept downstairs to see what they could get into. Brown Mouse was … Continue reading →

An Early American Christmas – Tomie dePaola

This fun children’s Christmas book is set in a small New England town a long, long time ago. No one had decorated or put candles in their windows. There weren’t even any wreaths on the doors. But then a new family moved in. They had come from Germany, and they decorated and they sang Christmas carols. Everyone called them the Christmas family. They began their preparations in the fall, by gathering up bayberries and making candles by dipping string into wax. The bayberry-scented candles would fill the home with delicious scents. They also gathered apples, pumpkins, and squash, putting them … Continue reading →

Home for Navidad – Harriet Ziefert

“Home for Navidad” is a cute children’s picture book that tells us the story of Rosa, a ten-year-old girl who lives in a small Mexican village with her grandmother, her uncle, and her little brother. When Rosa wakes up at the beginning of the book, it’s still dark outside, but already her abuela is in the garden, beginning her daily chores. Then she comes in the house and begins to grind corn for breakfast, calling out for Rosa to get up. After breakfast, she goes to the fields with her Uncle Pancho. They pick ripe, yellow ears of corn until … Continue reading →

The Angel of Mill Street – Frances Ward Weller

Frances Rosalie Murphy was a little girl who lived on Mill Street. It was Christmas Eve, and she was waiting for St. Nicholas to come, but more immediately, she waited for her Uncle Ambrose. They couldn’t start the Christmas feast without him, and he hadn’t arrived yet. She waited at the window, but there was no sign of him. Every Christmas, he would tell her the story of Christ’s birth, bringing it to life with his beautiful voice. He told her of the angels that came to herald the newborn king, and she could almost see the angels in the … Continue reading →

Week in Review: December 3rd-9th

We had a great week in Media Reviews. In case you missed out on this week’s blogs, here’s a rundown of everything we did. In “By Man Least Understood,” Tristi reviewed an LDS doctrinal book about forgiveness, repentance, and the need we all have for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. She then took a closer look at Barbara Kingsolver’s blockbuster hit, “The Poisonwood Bible,” the story of a preacher who took his wife and daughters to the Belgian Congo and the experiences they had when the Congolese decided to proclaim their independence from Belgium in the 1960s. We reviewed some … Continue reading →

The Man Who Walked the Earth – Ian Wallace

The setting is the 1930s, in the midst of the Great Depression. Our narrator is a young man whose father has set off to find work. The day he left, the mother told the son to set an extra plate at the table, in case someone came by for dinner. They lived out in the middle of nowhere, so such a thing would be unlikely, but he did as he was told. He put out an extra plate every single day for eight months, at every meal. They hoped that wherever their father was, someone had set a place for … Continue reading →

Stranger in the Woods – Carl R. Sams II & Jean Stoick

Stranger in the Woods may sound like a spooky story, but it isn’t at all. It’s a charming winter picture book told with a few words and beautiful color photos. The animals who live in the woods react in alarm to the appearance of a “stranger”. The stranger is actually a snowman, but not just any snowman, it’s a snowman built to be a special treat for the animals. The photographs are beautiful, several show a family of dear through wintry snow covered trees. There are close-ups of a blue jay, an owl, a red cardinal, and mourning doves. The … Continue reading →