Christmas Books That Delight

Since it's December 24th, I couldn't help but give some holiday love to my favorite Christmas books.

Here's a short list of some of my favorites:

Llama Llama Holiday Drama by Anna Dewdney

Oh that little lovable llama...while Llama Llama Red Pajama will always be my favorite, this is a wonderful book to share during the holiday season with little ones. All sorts of holiday preparations to finish before Christmas actually arrives, but little llama is having a hard time waiting.

The Polar Express by Chis Van Allsburg

 Oh, the magic of this story. What an amazing train ride that would be! To this day, I have to check all jingle bells to make sure I can still hear them ring.

Pete the Cat Saves Christmas by Eric Litwin

How fun the Pete the Cat stories are (especially the ones written by Eric Litwin). When Santa gets the sniffles, thankfully Pete is there to save Christmas. Another fun Pete the Cat read-aloud with a nice message.

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Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree by Robert Barry

Originally printed in 1963, this was one of my favorites as a child. When I rediscovered this book just a few years ago (it was reprinted in 2000), I read each page with a mix of anticipation and familiarity that only an old favorite can bring. This enchanting story all begins with Mr Willowby's too big Christmas tree...

The Night Before Christmas (A Hallmark Pop Up Book)

This is a 1980 pop-up version of Twas The Night Before Christmas and was an annual tradition with my siblings. We would pour over this book and all of it's movable parts year after year. Then when we received a reading of this classic poem on cassette tape, we knew all the words and would listen to it on Christmas Eve as we tried to fall asleep before Santa arrived.

Little Santa by Jon Agee

 A silly Christmas story about Santa as a little boy? It's a great new edition to the holiday books we have to choose from. Just promise one thing, don't take this book too seriously.

Santa Duck by David Milgrim

I recently discovered this book as a fun read-aloud for a holiday storytime. Who can resist Santa Duck's catchy "jingle quack, jingle quack"? What would some of the animals ask for if they got the chance, you must read to find out!

Don't see yours? Please share your favorite (when you are all settled with your Christmas festivities)!

Books for Fans of Frozen

Tale of Two Sisters

Who's that Knocking on Christmas Eve

The Reader

Great Reindeer Rebellion

Snow Princesses

Wolf Princess

Winter's Child

Singer in the Snow

Winterling

Two Princesses of Bamarre

Any others you can think of?

Books for Hobbit Fans

I'm wicked excited about seeing the Hobbit - are you? I can't wait to see the dragon!

Here are 10 books that will interest you/your readers that deal with quests or have similar creatures in the Hobbit. 

Cry of the Icemark

 

Keeper of the Grail

 

Singer of All Songs

 

Seer and the Sword

 

Ranger's Apprentice

 

Eon

 

Wings

 

 

Knife

 

Giants, Ogres, and Trolls

 

World Without Heroes

 

As usual, I couldn't stop at 10. Here's two more:

 

Firelight

 

Scorched

What else would you recommend?

Bookish Gifts

I love giving books out for the holidays (not to mention getting them in return). The books I give each year always changes, depending on my favorite reads and the people getting them.

I won't mention the ones that I'm giving out, but I have about ten that I'm gifting - not all YA. I've also asked for three books for myself.

Do you gift books? Do you have a book you regularly gift?  Or is there a certain book you're hoping someone will gift to you?

Willy Wonka Interactive Movie

It's been a few months since we tried our first interactive family movie, but I thought I would take a few minutes now to share. In September, we created a huge Roald Dahl book display and as an extension program we hosted an interactive showing of the "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" (the 1971 edition, thank you very much). Thanks to all the great collaborative sharing on the ALSC blog, I was able to gather up some beginning ideas (and courage) that we modified to our community. Now that holiday and winter breaks are fast approaching, I hope to try this type of fun family interactive event again soon.
(Need a movie license? We use: Movie Licensing USA )

Here is what our interactive movie event looked like:

We wore costumes, welcomed our participants, and explained what our interactive program would look like. We decided to guide our participants through the movie by passing out props as the scenes came up (rather than give a bag of stuff out in the beginning). We had hoped to have a big pretend contract for everyone to sign in the beginning while people are getting settled, but we ran out of time.

We explained that each time:

• you hear the word "scrumpdiddlyumptious”, you eat some candy
• The Oompa Loompas come out, you stand up and dance and hit your rhythm sticks to the beat.
• the bad guy comes on, you scream!
• a song comes up, we will project the words on the wall so that you can sing along if you choose

Here is a list of what we did :

• In the beginning when the kids are running from school, we all stomped and ran in place. This helped to get everyone excited for all the upcoming fun!
• "Candy Man" song – we sang along and passed out Wonka candy 
• Science experiment scene – we walked around with talcum powder to make the bang come to life (this was a huge cleanup and we will skip this next time for sure!)
• Every time a golden ticket is found, we held up a huge sign with the corresponding number on it and yelled out "1!" (or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5!)
• Blue/yellow/orange crepe paper for “Cheer up Charlie”. This is a very slow song so we gave crepe paper out to shake so everyone could sing and try to cheer up Charlie. (Passed out during song.)
• Charlie’s golden ticket – everyone cheers and hoots and claps
• Grandpa dancing song – we all got up and danced  (we passed out rhythm sticks during the dance)
• Clock strikes 10 – Rhythm sticks beats with ticks. Celebrate with crepe paper and cheering when the crowd celebrates.
• Imagination song – we sang along and passed out beach balls to hit around during this slow song
• Chocolate river scene– we handed out hot chocolate 
• Oompa loompa song – sing along and use rhythm sticks
• Scary boat scene – We had planned to use a disco light during this scene, but it was actually really scary to lots of kiddos so we handed out glow in the dark bugs. This helped distract a bit from the actual scene. 
• Oompa loompa room – We pedaled our pretend bicycles while Wonka is peddling. (We passed out blue balloons for next scene)
• When Violet starts eating and describing the food the candy tastes like, start blowing the blue balloon.  Let them go when she gets rolled away.
• Oompa loompa song - sing along and use rhythm sticks
• Fizzy lifting drink scene- we used a bubble machine and passed out bubbles to blow 
• Golden eggs – We handed out plastic eggs filled with a gold coin and a little note that says good egg or bad egg. It was fun to see if you got a good or bad egg.   
• Oompa loompa song -  sing along and use rhythm sticks
• Car wash – we used silly string 
• TV scene – we passed out 3D glasses to wear during the scene. 
• When Willy Wonka hugs Charlie for the good deed, hug a friend/grown up/yourself
• When they get in the elevator, kids bend down and rise up with the elevator and fly around with the crepe paper

Overall, this was a super fun day! We turned on the sing along feature to play all songs while we cleaned up. We also created a golden ticket hunt in the children's department by hiding 5 golden tickets throughout.

We hope to try this again soon!

 

Catching Fire (the movie)

I saw the movie yesterday and LOVED it! I talked about it a little on my other blog.

 

Also I love this picture of Suzanne Collins at a premier! 

Catching Fire Day!

Happy Catching Fire Day! 

I'm headed to see it tomorrow. I'm really excited. I've been hearing all sorts of good things on Twitter about it. Some people say that it's better than the Hunger Games. Some have no words for it. Some cried 3 or 5 times during the movie.

While I don't want to cry, I can't wait to see it. Have you seen it yet?

I love that they're making more movies out of YA books!

Has there been a surge in Dystopian novels in your library? What do you notice teens/adults checking out after the Hunger Games?

There are all kinds of infographics on what to read next - including mine.