{"id":2616,"date":"2013-12-25T16:17:18","date_gmt":"2013-12-25T20:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/?p=2616"},"modified":"2013-12-25T16:24:29","modified_gmt":"2013-12-25T20:24:29","slug":"childrens-christmas-books-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/?p=2616","title":{"rendered":"Children’s Christmas Books for 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a little messed up<\/del> unorthodox, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll admit, posting my annual children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Christmas books list<\/a> on Christmas day. The story of why is a tale no one with any ambitions in life would ever want to hear, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll just cut to the list. This year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s list is short and sweet; four books have caught my eye amid distractions of research papers, exams, and yes, extensive discussions on the fact that Taylor Swift will play Rosemary in the upcoming movie version of The Giver<\/i>. (My seventh graders just finished the novel, and I feel my life is now complete.)<\/p>\n

\"IMG_6543\"<\/a>Many of you may have heard stories of the letters Tolkien wrote his own children when they were young, letters signed by \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Father Christmas.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d long forgotten this tidbit of information when I stumbled across this title at my local library earlier this month and saw this book The Father Christmas Letters<\/i>. In truth, parents may enjoy this one even more than the children.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_6541\"<\/a>The credit for The Gift of the Magi<\/i> goes to Kirsten over at Comfortably Domestic<\/a>; after my first children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Christmas books post,<\/a> she mentioned O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Henry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s short story as a favorite. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d only ever seen it in anthologies I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d taught, but on a whim I searched my local bookstore, where I found a picture book version of the story. If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not familiar with it, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s classic O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Henry style with a heartwarming twist at the end. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d recommend it for older children who will be able to appreciate the full significance of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153gifts.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\"IMG_6534\"<\/a>And finally, I present two books in a series of books about various states in the United States: The Twelve Days of Christmas in North Carolina<\/i> and The Twelve Days of Christmas in South Carolina<\/i>. The premise behind each book is that a child goes to visit relatives in one of the Carolinas, and the relatives (clearly and conveniently blessed with extensive vacation time and lots of hotel points) take the child to a different part of the state each day for twelve days to show off their home state. The child writes a letter home each day, describing the sights of the day. Honestly, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the most riveting prose ever, but the books are fun and very informative, and the small people learned many things about the region we call home. If you are interested, there are many other states available in the series as well.<\/p>\n

If any of you have any favorites to share, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d love to hear from you. Next Christmas is only a year away, so perhaps I should start compiling the 2014 list now! \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

Merry Christmas y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, and enjoy your holiday season!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a little messed up unorthodox, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll admit, posting my annual children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Christmas books list on Christmas day. The story of why is a tale no one with any ambitions in life would ever want to hear, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll just cut to the list. This year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s list is short and sweet; four books have caught […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1],"tags":[735,715,1634,1633,1632,1630,1631,1635],"class_list":["post-2616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-islandlife","tag-childrens-christmas-books","tag-christmas-books","tag-ohenry-magi-story","tag-the-father-christmas-letters","tag-the-gift-of-the-magi","tag-the-twelve-days-of-christmas-in-north-carolina","tag-the-twelve-days-of-christmas-in-south-carolina","tag-tolkien-christmas-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2616\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}