Holiday Gift Idea #4: A Charming Import

There's something magical about books from faraway places. Perspectives on life are just a bit different and lend a whimsical touch to familiar subjects -- and to unusual ones. Here are seven gems that travelled this year across the pond from England and France and into U.S. bookstores.

From England:

Dick Bruna's I Can Count, Round, Square, Triangle and My Vest is White , by Dick Bruna, Tate Publishing (Abrams), $7.95 each, ages 2 and up, 28 pages, 2012. Bold, crisp colors and clean, simple lines make learning to count, and identifying basic colors and shapes a snap -- in this compact trio by a renowned Dutch author.

Bruna's graphics are warm and welcoming, and unclutter the mind to learn. Bruna's work, by way of an earlier series, has a tender spot in my heart. When I was 2, my grandmother gave me Dick Bruna's The Sailor (A Toy Box Tale) about a sailor boy who sailed his toy ship to a land of ice and snow. To this day, when I think of books that made me feel cozy and secure as a small child, Bruna's pops into memory. Best part: The clarity of the message, owed to Bruna's smart use of primary colors and thick, black lines.

Holiday Gift Guide 2011 - Day 1

HO, Ho, HO! Here we go!

This holiday my stocking runneth over. There are so many incredible books to share and so little time to write.

So, to try to get in as many books as I can, I've divided up the guide among four days.

Today, the first day, I've posted my 12 favorite holiday stories with full reviews. (Each title appears at the end of this post as a live link. Click the link to go directly to a review or scroll down the page.)

On Dec. 14, I'll spotlight books that look and feel as good as toys. This list will include pop-up books, crafts books, drawing books and books about, well, toys!

Then Dec. 29, I'll share a few of my favorite things. Among them Bumble-Ardy, the first book written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak in 30 years.

I'll wrap up the guide the first week of January, with my lists of the best books of the year, from the best illustrated picture books to the most fun read-alouds.

To get as many in as I can, reviews will be Twitter-style, short and quick.

I hope you enjoy this year's guide and it leads you to just the book you're looking for!

Happy holidays everyone!!!

2. The Carpenter's Gift

Written by David Rubel

Illustrated by Jim LaMarche

Random House, 2011
$17.99, ages 4-8, 44 pages

A wish made on a paper star one chilly Christmas Eve long ago leads to a magical sequence of events, in this beautifully illustrated picture book.

Recalling back to childhood, an aging carpenter tells of how an act of kindness in 1931 inspired him late in life to pay that generosity forward.

That year, the carpenter, then a boy named Henry, and his parents were at their lowest. His father had lost his job, and their house had deteriorated into a drafty shack.

It was the Depression and as with many families, jobs were sparse and people had to eke out a living however they could.

So the night before Christmas, Henry and his father cut down trees in the woods, then drove an hour to New York City to try to sell them. 

Pulling off a city street, they saw a construction crew and asked if they could share their lot to sell the trees.

The crew could see from their worn faces and clothes that Henry and his father were down on their luck, and welcomed them in.

Soon, the workers were also hurrying over to help unload trees, unaware that the next thing they would unload would change Henry's life forever.

7. Chanukah Lights

Written by Michael J. Rosen

Paper engineering by Robert Sabuda

Candlewick, 2011

$34.99, 5 years and up, 16 pages

Quiet, reflective scenes of Chanukah rise off the page, coaxing readers to linger and reflect, in this spectacular pop-up about the eight-day Jewish festival.

Celebrated author Michael Rosen leads readers around the world to imagine different times and places where the Festival of Lights was celebrated as each night's menorah is lit.

Then acclaimed paper engineer Robert Sabuda echoes Rosen's lyrical words with intricate pop-ups that rise off the page like silent exclamations.

8. The Twelve Days of Christmas

Written & illustrated by Jane Ray

Candlewick, 2011

$16.99, ages 3-6, $16.99

In this beguiling edition of The Twelve Days of Christmas, a suitor woos his love next door with a series of gifts that reflect his deepening affection.

The suitor, an elegant man with twinkling eyes, watches his gifts arrive from his window until the last one is delivered, and he feels brave enough to a walk over and declare his love.

As the first of 12 gifts come, tiny puffs of snow float down outside a row of color-washed houses by a canal. A postman knocks at flat #4 and the woman, her hair swept back with a ribbon, answers the door and gasps with delight. 

There on the step is a potted pear tree, each branch perfectly positioned as if espaliered, and a partridge with mottled feathers perched on a limb. A tag dangles from another branch addressed, "To My True Love X."

Every day greater numbers of things arrive on her stoop, each more whimsical and grand than the last.

11. Jingle Bells

Written by John Harris
Illustrated by Adam Gustavson
Peachtree, 2011
$16.95, ages 6-10, 32 pages

A minister lifts the spirits of a downtrodden congregation with the sound of sleigh bells and a flurry of snow-white feathers, in this charming twist on history.

John Harris, the co-writer of A Giraffe Goes to Paris, weaves a tender tale of how John Lord Pierpont came to write the holiday song Jingle Bells in the sticky heat of Georgia in 1857. 

Though little is known about what spurred Pierpont to write the beloved carol, Harris gathered what facts he could, then pieced them together with his imagination to create this heart-warming story.

Many historians believe Pierpont wrote the song in Medford, Massachusetts, but others like Harris believe he was more apt to have written it in Savanna while serving as a church music director.

12. Little Bunny and the Magic Christmas Tree

Written David Martin
Illustrated by Valeri Gorbachev
Candlewick, 2011
$15.99, ages 2-4, 40 pages

It's Christmas Eve and Little Bunny is fed up with being the shortest bunny in his family.

His younger but taller twin brothers have hung his fire engine ornament out of his reach and his big brother is calling him "Teeny-Tiny" bunny.

So Little Bunny does what any frustrated little bunny might do: he dives under the Christmas tree and refuses to come out.

But being mad is tiring and while he's under there, Little Bunny drifts off to sleep.

Then something magical happens.

In the night, Little Bunny feels a tiny scarf land on his shoulder and hears a teeny voice.

Could that really be the snowman ornament calling down from a branch above?

Over the River and Through the Wood

The New England Boy's Song

About Thanksgiving Day

Written by Lydia Maria Child

Illustrated by Matt Tavares

Candlewick, 2011

$16.99, ages 4 and up, 32 pages

A family's eagerness to get to grandfather's house is felt in every verse and slide of their sleigh, in this handsome, cozy edition of a beloved Thanksgiving song.

Acclaimed Matt Tavares illustrates Lydia Maria Child's 1844 poem, "A Boy's Thanksgiving," which became the song, "Over the River and Through the Wood," and in the most regardful way, keeping to the simplicity of her words and the time.

The boy remains the center of the family's New England outing, leaping onto the sleigh to grip the reigns before his family steps inside. As he holds them high in his mittened hands, the boy imagines flying through a spray of snow.

After his family climbs in, the boy slips over onto the bench, and his father, sitting next to him, leans forward and raps the reigns. His mother, in a bonnet, long gold coat and billowy scarf, scoops his little sister onto her knee so she can see store fronts as they pass.

The boy's face is gleeful and eager, and his left arm, as if spring-loaded, shoots in front of his father to point to freshly made toys in a store window. The father isn't jolted in the least. If anything his jaunty countenance only grows as he soaks in his boy's joy.

But as the poem goes, nothing delays them today; only family is in their sights. "We would not stop / For doll or top, / For it is Thanksgiving day," the boy seems to sing out with not a grumble or sigh.

What a Marvelous Book! Holiday Gift Guide 2010

A book may not zip when it moves, bop when it stops or whir when it stands still, like the whatsit in Tom Paxton's song The Marvelous Toy, but it can be just as wondrous.

Every year, as I prepare this list, I am amazed by how many wonderful books came out that year, and it's always hard to pick favorites. I pile up the books I'm especially fond of, then send each through a filter of sorts in my head.

I try to imagine myself as a child, picking each one up for the first time and reading it through, and I ask myself whether, like a marvelous toy, it could become my heart's delight, the kind of book I'd never forget.

In some cases, a book sneaks up on me and only after letting it sit do I realize how much I loved reading it, and in other cases, it's like the marvelous toy in the song and it pops the first time I read it.