Collected Miscellany

Here’s wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas!  I hope you found the books you wanted under the tree and you have some time this holiday season to put a dent in the TBR pile.

*

*Yes, I just needed an excuse to use these social media ornament icons!

Another great book I came across at the library with my kids was The Wee Christmas Cabin of Carn-na-ween. As I love folklore and Christmas this was a perfect story for me.  Here is Publishers Weekly:

Readers will want to pull up a creepie (stool) and gather ’round a roaring peat fire to hear every lilting word of Sawyer’s magical and haunting Irish folktale, first published in 1941. Orphan girl Oona, abandoned by her tinker kin, grows into a lonely, ostracized old woman longing for a home of her own. On Christmas Eve, as the legend goes, the wee people to whom Oona has always been kind oblige her in a special way. Gauzy, evocative mixed-media paintings convey a quiet yet powerful energy.

We didn’t have a peat fire but we did gather on the couch and read this charming story. It has that classic Irish blend of melancholy, magic, tragedy and hope. And as noted by PW, the illustrations add to the evocative story.

So if your family loves to read stories out loud together this would be a great choice this holiday season. Of course , you and your older readers could read it too (I read it again after the family reading).

Cover via Amazon

We made a family trip to the library last weekend and as usual picked up quite a pile of books for the kids to read (and a couple for myself) And also not surprisingly a number of the books had a winter or holiday theme.

One book that I grabbed almost as an afterthought, The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming by Lemmony snicket, turned out to be one that the whole family enjoyed.

Here is the publishers tease:

Latkes are potato pancakes served at Hanukkah, and Lemony Snicket is an alleged children’s author. For the first time in literary history, these two elements are combined in one book. A particularly irate latke is the star of The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming, but many other holiday icons appear and even speak: flashing colored lights, cane-shaped candy, a pine tree. Santa Claus is briefly discussed as well. The ending is happy, at least for some. People who are interested in any or all of these things will find this book so enjoyable it will feel as though Hanukkah were being celebrated for several years, rather than eight nights.

The plot of this particular tale involves a latke who jumps out of the frying pan right out the window and embarks on a journey. Along the way he screams – hence the title – and also explores – and satirizes – the cultural clash of Hanukkah and Christmas.

The book really is a great package.  It is funny, clever, well designed and illustrated (by Lisa Brown) and even packs a little education and a subtle message about the holidays.

Our family found it was great fun to scream along with the latke as we read the story.  So if you haven’t spotted this particular holiday themed gem be sure to check it out at the library or local bookstore.  I think you will enjoy it whether you celebrate Hanukah, Christmas, both, or neither.

I realize it isn’t even Thanksgiving so perhaps I shouldn’t be reviewing Christmas books just yet.  But I thought I would offer a quick take on this slim volume now otherwise I would probably forget to write about it come Christmas.

Here is the publisher’s blurb for Mrs. Scrooge: A Christmas Poem by Carol Ann Duffy:

With her husband, Ebenezer, now “doornail dead,” the coldest Christmas Eve on record finds Mrs. Scrooge outside the supermarket, protesting consumerism and waste. “Spoilsport!” shout the passersby as they load up their shopping carts with Christmas goodies. Just as Ebenezer did, Mrs. Scrooge keeps to her frugal ways…but in the present economy, with loads of meaningless material goods bought on credit, maybe Mrs. Scrooge has the right idea.

That night, alone in her bed with Catchit the cat beside her, Mrs. Scrooge is visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. As each in succession takes her by the hand and sweeps through the scenes of her life, Mrs. Scrooge learns not only what the “Christmas Spirit” really means, but the nature of the real gifts we give and receive.

The author is most famous for being the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom and perhaps it speaks to my literacy that I had not previously heard of her.

I would guess that you will enjoy this poem if when you think turkey you think animal cruelty and when you think North Pole you think of global warming and melting polar ice caps. If you think the commercialism of the holidays are tied to the inherent greed of capitalism.

Read the rest of this entry »