Christmas Favorites: The Story of Holly & Ivy

The Story of Holly & Ivy
Written by Rumer Godden
Illustrated by Barbara Cooney

Loneliness and wishing are the themes of this magical classic Christmas story, first published in 1957. Ivy is a lonely orphan wishing for a place to belong. Holly is a doll in Mr. Blossom's toy shop, dressed in Christmas red and green, wishing to find her little girl, fearful of being put into storage with the mean owl Abracadabra because she hasn't been sold this Christmas. Childless Mrs. Jones aches for something she almost doesn't allow herself to wish for. How these three wishes converge and are fulfilled during this wishing time of year make for a riveting story that never feels dated because it touches on themes that are universal to the human condition. This touching story is made more poignant by Barbara Cooney's dreamy, luminous illustrations, of which there are not enough, in my opinion.

I loved this story when I was a girl, and I'm so pleased my girls love it too. This is the first year Susanna sat through the whole reading of this long picture book.

Book Review: Cloud Tea Monkeys by Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham; illustrated by Juan Winjgaard

Tashi is a young girl living in a small village in the shadow of the Himalayan mountains. Every morning she walks to the tea plantation with her mother and sits in a secret spot playing and sharing her food with a band of monkeys who also spend each day there, as she waits while her mother spends the day picking tea. And now her mother is ill with a cough "hard and sharp like a stick breaking". One morning, when her mother is so sick she cannot rise from her bed to go to work, Tashi tries to take her place, dragging the her large tea basket to the plantation. When the heartless Overseer scorns her efforts, Tashi takes refuge in her secret spot and tearfully spills out her troubles to the monkeys. The male monkeys take Tashi's basket and disappear up the mountain into the mist, and return with the greenest, most fragrant tea leaves Tashi has ever seen or smelled.

This poignant tale is filled with lush, descriptive language as fragrant as the mysterious Cloud Tea.  And Juan Winjgaard's detailed, gorgeous illustrations capture the emotion and heart of the story, and so perfectly aided my daughters' understanding of key parts of the story. This is one of those perfect marriages of text and illustrations.
As I read this book aloud to my daughters, I was struck by the realistic portrayal of Tashi's and her mother's life. The writing is so descriptive I could feel the morning chill that burned away to "cruel" heat, the fear in Tashi as she listened to her mother cough, the fear of no money available for a doctor, the weight of the basket she dragged to the tea plantation, her crushing disappointment at not being allowed to pick tea in place of her mother. (You know it's descriptive when your children try to breathe in the tea clouds as you read.) And I marvelled at Winjgaard's talent for capturing all the emotional nuances of the story. My daughters sat enthralled throughout.


Other reviews:
Hope Is the Word
Pink Me

Olivia Reviews the First Book in Her New Favorite Series: the Harriet Bean Books by Alexander McCall Smith

Eight-year-old Olivia (who had her birthday this month) now has a new favorite series that she is devouring: the Harriet Bean books by Alexander McCall Smith. I found them at the online library site while I was checking on the availability of his Akimbo series (of which they only have one), and hoped she might like them.

The other night she dashed into the family room, gripping the first book, and exclaimed in an excited way, "This is SUCH a good book! I've been so absorbed in it!" Yes, she really did say that, and yes, she was. She lay on her bed all evening and read the book from cover to cover. It's so fun to see kids connect with books. When she was done, she handed it to me and said, "Mom, you've got to read this!" And I will, so we can talk about it together.

But since I haven't finished it, and Olivia is anxious to tell everyone about it, I asked Olivia to do a quick review of the book she liked so much. Here is what she has to say about it, synopsis and all:

The Five Lost Aunts of Harriet Bean

Written by Alexander McCall Smith
Illustrated by Laura Rankin

Harriet Bean lives with her absentminded inventor father. She learns, for the first time, that she has five aunts, her father's sisters. She takes an interest in that right away, especially when her father shows her a unfinished portrait of his family, and wants to know where they are. When her father tells her he has lost touch with them, she decides to take matters into her own hands, knowing her father is too absentminded to do so. She decides to write to the one aunt her father still has an old address for. Join Harriet Bean as she goes in search of her five lost aunts and tries to bring the family together again.

The way she went about finding the lost aunts was very interesting. And I thought she was clever in how she got her father to talk about his sisters. She discovered that the only way to get her absentminded father to talk about her aunts was to keep feeding him buttered scones and peppering him with questions. That's how she kept getting bits of the story from him. Isn't that funny? When she finds the aunts, she discovers they all have interesting jobs, but I'll let that be a surprise. I just loved this book. I hope you will, too.

P.S. I forgot to say that I loved the pictures in the book, especially of Harriet's father. And I'm still reading the second book, Harriet Bean and the League of Cheats, but it's good too. I think the third one, The Cowgirl Aunt of Harriet Bean, will be just as good.

My Girls' New Favorite Book: Ivy & Bean by Annie Burrows; Illustrated by Sophie Blackall

Ivy & Bean

Written by Annie Barrows
Illustrated by Sophie Blackall
Ages 6 and up
(Published in 2006 by Chronicle Books)

I bought this book a few weeks ago, not knowing anything about it, but as I skimmed through it at the store, it looked like one both my girls could and would want to read because:

1. The two little female protagonists are seven years old.
2. It is a book about best friends.
3. It has a young reader-friendly print size.
4. It is liberally peppered with pictures.

I was sure it had "hit" potential with my girls. They ignored it.
Then, when we were at the library the other day, I saw the audiobook version and borrowed it, hoping it would jump start their interest. And boy, did it! They have giggled over the audiobook all week (whose reader, Cassandra Morris, does a superb job, by the way), and now Karina is half-way through the book, with Olivia chomping at her heels to be finished so she can read it.

The synopsis:
Bean's mother keeps wanting Bean to make friends with Ivy, the new girl her age in the cul-de-sac. But Bean thinks she looks boring. One day, in hiding from her older sister Nancy after playing a practical joke on her, Bean finds an unexpected ally in Ivy. And a friendship blossoms as they discover their similarities and differences, and together conspire to take revenge on Nancy for her big sister meannesses.

The book is a quick read, for you moms (and dads) who like to pre-read books before handing them to your kids. It's a fairly quick read for kids too, which is appealing to young readers. And while, as a mom, I hope it doesn't give my girls any ideas about ill-treating each other (as if they didn't get plenty of ideas themselves!), the kid in me giggled along with the adventures of these two quirky, funny, vibrant, REAL girls. We look forward to more Ivy and Bean adventures.


Also go visit Chronicle's Ivy + Bean Website for the Ivy + Bean Fan Club and some great teacher and librarian resources, such as book-inspired worksheets and fun games you can play.

Book Review: All Their Names Were Courage by Sharon Phillips Denslow

All Their Names Were Courage

Written by Sharon Phillips Denslow

Historical Fiction
Ages 7 and up

An historical novel, set during the Civil War, told in the form of letters over the course of three years, as eleven year old Sally Burd corresponds with her brother William, a Union soldier away at war. Sally writes to her brother that she and her friend Isaac have decided to write a book about the horses of Generals fighting in the war, illustrated by Isaac. She writes a letter of introduction and sends copies off to 19 generals, on both sides of the war. Here is an excerpt of that letter:

"Dear Sir,

My friend Isaac Mills and myself, Sarah McAlister Burd, both eleven and one half years,  of Brewers Mill, Kentucky, are writing to generals with regard to your fine horses. We mean to make a book of horses with pictures drawn by Isaac and letters from generals, such as yourself, telling us some about your favorite horse. We feel that the courageous warhorses and their stories and daring should not be lost."

When I saw this book on the library shelf, the title intrigued me. Then when I realized it was an epistolary book, I had to check it out: I'm a sucker for books in the form of letters or journals.
As I started to read, I quickly got hooked by the story. I appreciated that the focus of the book isn't on taking sides in the war; rather, it's about the life of a family, seen through the eyes of a young girl, when a son and brother are away at war; it's about the relationship between brother and sister, and their joint interest in the project that Sally and Isaac have undertaken. And even though I am not a horse person, I was intrigued by the project they undertook. I have never really considered before just how important horses were in the Civil War. I now have a better understanding and appreciation for those gallant warhorses and that all their names were, indeed, Courage.



Book published in 2003 by Greenwillow
This copy borrowed from the library.