Christmas Favorites: A New Coat For Anna

A New Coat For Anna
Written by Harriet Ziefert
Illustrated by Anita Lobel

Based on a true story that takes place just after World War II, in an unnamed European town, A New Coat For Anna is the story of how young Anna's determined, enterprising mother, who doesn't have the money to buy Anna the coat she needs, uses the few fine posessions she has left to barter for the goods and services she needs to make Anna's new coat. She trades with the farmer for his sheeps' wool; she trades with the spinner to spin it to yarn; she trades with the weaver to weave the cloth; she trades with the tailor to sew the coat. The whole process takes a year, and Anna and her mother have to participate in the coat's creation too (carding the wool and dying the yarn using lingonberries.) After the coat is finished, just in time for Christmas of the next year, Anna and her mother invite all the people who helped make Anna's new coat possible to a Christmas celebration.

The wonderful, plentiful illustrations by Anita Lobel are perfect for the story, providing enough detail of each stage of the coat's genesis for modern children to understand and feel the work that went into it.

I deeply appreciate that this book gives children an insight into true hardship and inventiveness under trying conditions, without resorting to preachiness. My daughters and I love this story. It's a favorite reread at any time of the year, but especially at Christmas.



Published in 1986 by Random House Children's Books

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.

Some of our favorite Christmas reads

Book Review: A Tree For Peter by Kate Seredy

A Tree for Peter
Written and illustrated by Kate Seredy
Original Copyright 1941
Published in 2004 by Purple House Press

Peter is little, lame, fatherless, poor and "afraid of many things." His mother has to work every day in the city and he spends his week alone and frightened, living for Sunday, her day off. They live in Shantytown, an area of old abandoned houses that the poorest of the poor are squatting in as they try to eke out a meager living: it is a people and a place without hope. Until one day, small Peter meets Peter King, an old tramp who befriends him and teaches him to stop being fearful of life. As his outlook changes, he starts making friends, first with a mangy dog, and then with the Irish cop whose beat includes Shantytown. As he changes, he starts changing the world around him, little by little. From Peter King's kindness, a chain of events builds and transforms Small Peter and all the people of Shantytown.

  I loved this story. Loved it. I felt so helpless and depressed as I read about Peter being left alone day after day in those squalid conditions by a mother who clearly hated it as much as he did, but didn't have any other option. And I rejoiced when he found a kind heart to teach him to live beyond those fears.
  People of today might read the story and see only the unrealistic aspects compared to our own day: children left alone day after day without state interference; a friendship with a vagrant who turns out to be kind rather than deranged. But for me as a modern reader, I think this story still has bearing, and I appreciate the hope that drives the story, the inherent innocence of it, and the author's assumption that people are basically good and -more importantly- that one person can make a difference in the lives of others.
  Kate Seredy's beautiful, detailed, sepia illustrations accompany her amazing story, and set the tone.
  One of our family's very favorite stories, this makes a great read-aloud anytime, but especially at Christmas. (If you can get through it without weeping.)