I thought I might take a moment today to share a book I bought this year.  I am a big fan of Jon J. Muth. We have a number of his books and my children particularly enjoy reading his zen stories featuring Stillwater the panda (Zen Shorts, Zen Ties & Zen Ghosts).

So when I stumbled upon The Christmas Magic while out shopping I knew I had to get it. And rather than wrap it as a gift I brought it home and we read it for bedtime stories in preparation for Christmas.

As Booklists notes, this is not your classic Santa:

Children get a different Santa than they are used to in a book that focuses on the quiet preparation that leads to Christmas. Far, far north, this Santa Claus is not a jolly old elf, but rather a thin, subdued fellow in a blue suit. There’s no Mrs. Claus—well, Santa darns his own socks—nor are there busy elves. Just reindeer called home from a snowy wilderness who are fed parsnips and berries before their long journey. Alone, Santa readies his sleigh and visits a room with toys, where he picks one for each boy and girl in his book. Finally the night “thrums with magic,” and Santa embarks on his vast journey. It’s the air of magic and mystery, which prevails in both text and art, that will capture children’s interest and allow them to accept a Santa who is not the norm. This is primarily true in the majestic outdoor spreads that are all stars and snow and sing of unknown possibilities. But even the cozy indoor scenes have a slightly unsettling feel that will intrigue readers. A new take on an iconic figure.

The story is simple but whimsical and mysterious. It hints at the magic and beauty of the north.  Muth’s wondrous watercolors bring the story to life. Santa is kind and full of joy even without the extra weight.

The snow and stars are so enchanting that you wish you could climb into the story and experience the crisp winter nights where each snowflake seems to sparkle and the stars are bright and clear.  The deer are soft and friendly, like beloved companions who cheirsh the seasons as much as Santa, even as they sport wide grins in a couple of the illustrations.

If you are looking for a Christmas picture book with a different take on Santa this is a great choice.  A wonderful story with beautiful art sure to be enjoyed for many, many seasons.

“Dakota Christmas” has struck a chord. One recent week it was No. 1 for sales in Amazon’s Kindle Singles and in nonfiction, and No. 1 for all sales in all books on Amazon in the categories of Christmas, memoirs and religion.

As I write it is the #2 Kindle Single just below Dean Koontz and about Stephen King.

So what is Dakota Christmas?

A memoir of childhood Christmases on the South Dakota plains. By turns sweet and comic, sentimental and serious, Joseph Bottum’s “Dakota Christmas” is an instant Christmas classic. In this beautifully written account of the mad joys and wild emotions of Christmas for children, Bottum captures the universal spirit of the season even while he recounts his memories with a sharp particularity that brings them alive for readers.

It is rather hard to describe actually.  It is a memoir and an exploration of a holiday with all its cultural and emotional nostalgia and detritus; an exploration of memory and childhood and an essay on the Christmas essay. I think the key lies in the “universality through particularity” noted above.  It is in describing and thinking about his own experiences with Christmas that Bottum in turn flushes out our own experiences, memories, emotions and conceptions.

The writing is literary, the author has a 10,00 book library he is finally able to shelve in one place now living in South Dakota, and richly detailed.  His detailing his unique experiences and relationships almost automatically causes the reader to explore his own past.  He recalls the toys, books, food and music of the season – and the events, places and people; he recalls the details but struggles to feel the emotions in quite the same way.  A Bottum notes, memory is in many ways our least reliable tool but really our only tool for this task.

Throughout is the thread of place and the plains of the Dakotas are a character themselves.  And it is in this place that Bottum is reminded of the underlying meaning and truth of the season.

Readers with a similar background will find the essays nostalgic and full of cultural touch-points. Those with a different background will enjoy an evocative tour through a different time and place.  Anyone with a fondness for Christmas will enjoy an interesting exploration of the holiday through a variety of perspectives. I am not sure what makes an “instant Christmas classic” but think “by turns sweet and comic, sentimental and serious” is a great description of this enjoyable collection of essays.

Dakota Christmas is a bit of a surprise hit for the author.  The Washington Times:

As far as Christmas miracles go, it ranks somewhere between virgin birth and the Sisyphean persistence of fruitcake.

A writer loses a plum magazine-editing job in New York City, decamping to his native South Dakota. Out of the blue, a major online publisher asks him to adapt and expand an 11-year-old piece about his holiday memories. The resulting essay, warm and wise, becomes a surprise electronic best-seller – topping works by authors such as Nicholas Sparks and Tom Clancy – and a small beacon of hope for a beleaguered profession struggling to survive in the digital age.

“It’s been sweet,” said Joseph Bottum, who has recently lived that scenario. “What else could one want for a Christmas piece?”

A freelance writer and former editor at the conservative religious journal First Things, Mr. Bottum is the author of “Dakota Christmas,” a top seller for Amazon’s Kindle, an electronic reader and e-bookstore.

By turns serious and comic, the piece offers a richly detailed, loosely chronological account of Mr. Bottum’s bookish boyhood on the Dakota plains, reflecting on both the spiritual and secular meanings of the holiday season in a sentimental, melancholic manner reminiscent of the animated television classic “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

I will post my review shortly.

Listen Here.

An unexpected visitor makes Christmas special for a little boy. While performing a trial run for Santa Claus – the reindeer are far too dainty and aloof for such risky business – Mr. Moose goes off course and crashes through the roof of Billy Wagner’s house, injuring his leg. There’s nothing to do but to stay there until he recovers, regaling the family with stories until Father Christmas comes to get him. Billy’s fascination with Mr. Moose lifts the little boy’s spirits as he faces a new year of hope. This perennial best-seller in Germany will bring Christmas cheer to all readers.

A translated holiday story with charming illustrations? Yes, I will pick that up for the family. I read it last night and found it to be a quirky and enjoyable story.

I like the way the story blends in the miraculous nature of a talking moose who helps train Santa’s sleigh with the more mundane aspects of life: Billy’s know-it-all sister, his newly divorced mom’s feminist friend and her scarves, the helpful but nosey neighbor, etc.  The illustrations match this blend – sophisticated watercolors that have a cartoon quality. Billy is a likable character and his connection with Mr. Moose is charming; even if the bring back the divorced parents theme is somewhat over-done in the end. Even Know-it-all Kiki is endearing with her love of science and knowledge even as applied to something like Father Christmas and talking moose.

Little things make the story witty and realistic. The way the family feed grandma’s coconut biscuits to the ducks because she always burns them. How Billy fears his dark secret – breaking the neighbors eggs – will come out and ruin his Christmas.  How Mrs. Wagner’s motherly instincts kick in as they take care of Mr. Moose; and how much the family appreciates having a “pet” no matter how temporary and unique. Santa Clause as a rather brusque and demanding figure was a nice touch.

So if you are looking for something different for bedtime reading during the holidays check this one out.  A quirky story perfect as a short story for adults or to be read out loud with children.

One dollar and eight-seven cents is all the money Della has in the world to buy her beloved husband a Christmas present. She has nothing to sell except her only treasure — her long, beautiful brown hair. Set in New York at the turn of the twentieth century, this classic piece of American literature tells the story of a young couple and the sacrifices each must make to buy the other a gift. Beautiful, delicate watercolors by award-winning illustrator Lisbeth Zwerger add new poignancy and charm to this simple tale about the rewards of unselfish love.

If for some odd reason you haven’t read this classic tale, you should. It really is poignant and charming.  A young couple struggling to make ends meat determined to give Christmas gifts worthy of the love they share end up giving “useless” gifts but are in O. Henry’s words “the wisest of all who give and receive gifts.”

And this edition is perfect.  The beauty and simplicity allows the story to shine.  But like so many of Zwerger’s work, I think it is much more a gorgeous coffee table book for adults than an example of children’s literature.

The legal pad size book (8 1/2 by 14)  has lots of white space, a stylized font and, of course, Zwerger’s illustrations.  And those detailed, yet delicate, illustrations capture the emotions of the characters as the story proceeds. Many reviews focused on the font and white space as making it hard to read. And I suppose this is true if you are attempting to read it out loud in a classroom setting or at home. But I really like the overall effect.

From Della throwing herself on the couch for a nice long cry, nervously looking in the mirror after her sacrifice, and feeling her now short hair as she prepares supper to her husband Jim coming up the stairs, the awkward exchange of gifts, and the couple sitting across the table talking, the illustrations provide beautiful snapshots as the story unfolds.

It is a timeless story, and one we would do well to remember this – and every – holiday season, and I don’t think there is a better way to enjoy it than in this wonderful package.

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

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.

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.

Politics aside, I am not a poetry critic but from my amateur perspective the verse was well done .  Perhaps, it is my right-wing troglodyte coming out but the story was just a little too stereotypical modern liberal for me.

As touched on above, all the tropes of bohemian leftism are hit on here: animal cruelty, development destroying old neighborhoods, homosexuality, global warming, and general rampant materialism.

It is not that the message – that friends and family is what really matters not things – is objectionable, quite the contrary, it is that it is presented in such a politicized manner.  Or perhaps a culture that assumes a shared politics that isn’t there. This added up to a tone that was almost smug.  Not great for a Christmas story.

But, as I seem to say so often around here: your mileage may vary.