Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs is . . . well, peculiar. It's been around for a while, but it looked a little scary to me. And it was. But not too scary for me as long as I didn't read too late at night. It was the same kind of scary as Neil Gaiman or Tim Burton (who is directing the film version). So if you like them, you might like this book.

The book is filled with real and very strange vintage photographs which gave the author some of her inspiration for the story. It's a little bit historical, a little bit suspense, and a big dose of fantasy. I wasn't sure about the book when I started it, but the first line drew me in: "I had just come to accept that my life would be ordinary when extraordinary things began to happen."

This book was really good and really original (which is hard to do). But a word of caution. Besides being a little scary, this book also has a few curse words. It is an excellent read and I recommend it, just not to everyone.

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Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
by Ransom Riggs
Publisher: Quirk Books
Year: 2011
Ages: Young Adult
Content: some curse words, scary elements

Mickey's Christmas Carol

You most likely know what this book is about. I like Mickey's Christmas Carol, both the book and the cartoon, because it introduces young children to a classic Christmas story. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is familiar to us all through retellings and lots of different movie versions. Last year I finally read the original and even though Dickens can be difficult to read, I can tell you that A Christmas Carol is worth your time (and significantly shorter than his other books).

Or you can stick to the children's version like Mickey's Christmas Carol with your kids. Do you have a favorite version of Dickens's classic Christmas tale?

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Mickey’s Christmas Carol

By Disney Enterprises

Adapted from Charles Dickens

Publisher: Sandy Creek

Year: 2010

Info: Full color illustrations

Ages: Picture Books

Themes: Christmas, Classics

Writing Magic by Gail Carson Levine

Gail Carson Levine is a great writer of young adult fantasy and fairy tales. I loved Ella Enchanted, which won a Newbery Honor in 1998. Writing Magic: Creating Stories that Fly is a creative writing book for young adults.

Levine is great at writing for young adults and this carries over to her nonfiction as well. This book is full of encouragement, writing tips, and writing prompts. It would make a great gift for a young would-be author along with some writing notebooks and pens.

My favorite notebooks for writing are Moleskine. Big sizes are great for writing stories and small ones are perfect for carrying around to jot down story ideas. There are prettier notebooks out there, but I've found that if my notebook is too pretty, I never write in it because I only want to write something amazing in it. And amazing writing never happens in the first draft.

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Writing Magic: Creating Stories that Fly
by Gail Carson Levine
Publisher: Harper Collins
Year: 2014
Age: Young Adult, Middle Grade
Themes: Writing, Nonfiction

Snow by Roy McKie and P.D. Eastman

This has long been one of my kids' favorite books, whether we live among snow or not. It begins with an invitation to "Come out! Come out! Come out in the snow." It then follows two children through their snow adventures. It's full of the repetition and rhyming that kids love when read aloud.

Next week we're leaving our 80 degree Florida winter to hopefully see some snow in Utah. We'll see how much my kids like it in person. I enjoy snow best from inside a warm house.

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Snow
by Roy McKie and P.D. Eastman
Publisher: Beginner Books
Year: 1961
Ages: Picture Books

Give the Gift of Books

There are lots of lists of gifts for book lovers. I would love a purse made out of a book cover or socks that look like a library check out card. But the best gifts for book lovers is more books.

While I was growing up, every Christmas we got a stack of books. I've continued this tradition with my kids. And even though books can be expensive, they don't have to be. Most of the books I get for my kids are from garage sales and a kid's consignment store.

The kids in your life will like different books than mine do, but here are five things to think about when choosing books as gifts.

1. Choose books that are a little ahead of their age. My first grader isn't quite ready to read chapter books on her own, but I loved the Ramona books and anticipate her enjoying them too sometime in the next year. If nothing else, we can read them together.

2. Get them books with characters they like. If you know a TV show or movie they like, get them a book that goes with it. Even if they're not a reader, they will be drawn to a character they already know. (My daughter loves Curious George.)

3. Look and Find books are great for kids to look at on their own. They're fun to read together, but they also get kids to spend time alone with a book before they can even read.

4. Get them a book you love. If you're excited about it, it can help them get excited about it. I love literature and love giving the BabyLit Board Books as gifts to my own kids and as baby shower gifts.

5. Get them a nonfiction book about something they like. My daughter wants to learn to cook and so a kids' cookbook is a great option for her. For kids who aren't as into fiction, there are lots of nonfiction titles to find about something they're interested in.

Bonus: If you have no idea what kind of book they'll like, give a bookstore gift card. My kids each got a bookstore gift card last year and it was a special experience for them to get to go and pick out whatever book they wanted.

Listen to the Silent Night by Dandi Daley Mackall

Listen to the Silent Night by Dandi Daley Mackall is one of my favorite Christmas books. The story imagines the night of Christ's birth and how it was likely "not such a silent night." And it's illustrated with beautiful paintings by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher.

My daughter's know it as the "book that sometimes makes Mommy cry." Having given birth myself, I can't help but tear up at the page where "Mary groaned in pain, Joseph by her side. A shout rang out--Baby Jesus cried!" It hits close to home--the pain of giving birth and the joy of the baby's first cry. It makes the long-told story and the people in it seem very real to me.

This is a great read aloud book for Christmastime. Are there any books your family reads together every Christmas?

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Listen to the Silent Night

By Dandi Daley Mackall

Paintings by Steve Johnson & Lou Fancher

Publisher: Dutton’s Children’s Books

Year: 2011

Info: paintings

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

Apparently I am really late coming to this book. It was on the New York Times Bestseller list for two years. I've seen the cover all over the place but never even looked into what it was about. I wish I hadn't waited so long because it is worthy of all the attention that it has received.

Wonder is the story of August, a boy with craniofacial abnormalities that makes him look so different that he goes about his whole life with people staring, or conspicuously trying not to stare, at him. Young children even scream and run in fear of him. Most of us, even on our very ugliest days, cannot begin to imagine what that would be like.

August goes to school for the first time in middle school, a difficult time for any child. Not knowing what it was about as I got into it, I followed along with August as the narrator and then was surprised when it began switching to other young people who interact with him--friends, his sister, his sister's boyfriend. Though there is no way most of us could imagine being in August's shoes, we've all been in a situation where someone looks so different that we stare at or avoid eye contact with someone who looks different.

What I loved most about this book is that though there are a few simply horrible people who say and do awful things to August, most of the characters may stumble but they do the best they can to follow the precept from the book: "When given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind" (Dr. Wayne Dyer). Besides being an entertaining read, it is a book that teaches compassion, bravery, and not judging someone by what they look like. It's geared toward middle grade readers, but it would be a great book for young adults and adults as well.

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Wonder
By R.J. Palacio
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Year: 2012
Ages: Middle Grade, Young Adult

Visit the author's website for more information.