I love snuggling up with a really good book and a mug of cocoa in the cooler months, especially with my littles. There are wiggles and questions and giggles—there’s nothing like good read-aloud with them! One of our traditions is to gift new books to the kids (and ourselves!) for St. Nicholas Day. Here are some of the books we are excited to give the kids this year!
Grandma’s Best Stories
This sweet collection of stories is just the cutest. Short stories that are easy to read and engaging illustrations that are just lovely. I love a lovely book! While this will be an enjoyable read all year long, I can especially imaging snuggling up to grandma to enjoy these stories as a little kid. Making this a great experience gift to gift grandma even!! Only one of the short stories is about Christmas, making this a great year-round read.
In this first story we meet Grandmother who is making a cake and all her animal friends come to enjoy her company. As the story progresses, the animals find out that it’s grandmother’s birthday and she is so happy for the company instead of being alone with her cake. They all have a lovely day celebrating together.
The next story is about the day in a life of a friendly bear and the discoveries he makes with a little bird family who has eggs just about to hatch. It is just adorable and kind of silly with the addition of the sweet drawings showing bears reaction to the baby birds.
Now comes the Christmasy story in this collection of seven stories! This delightful story is about Mama and Papa Rabbit as they prepare for Christmas. They are gifting their family slippers for Christmas, but one of the pairs is missing! Where could it be? When they find it, they discover that a mouse family of six has moved in. Papa is tempted to toss the mice outside to find shelter elsewhere, but Mama mouse intercedes on their behalf to allow them to have a warm Christmas as well. Papa not only agrees, he tucks the mouse family into his own bed! Then he finishes preparing the seven sets of slippers for his family so it is ready for when the babies wake for Christmas morning.
Four more equally loving stories are in this book. I’m so excited that it’s adorable enough to hold my bigs attention and talk about the fun of the illustrations and what they think of the story, but short enough to keep the attention of my littlest kids all the way through. I can’t wait to get started reading this together. Purchase your copy by clicking this link!
The Adventures of Loupio, Vol 7
Volume 7 of the Loupio series has arrived!! This is a favorite of my kids starting about second grade and now into the tweens. This chapter book styled comic book is easy to read and keeps them guessing as the adventures are faced head on by Loupe.
I love the content page which isn’t at all overwhelming, especially for slower readers, but engaging for even the best readers. The silhouette drawing is something we are going to focus in on and maybe even make gifts from making our own silhouette drawings using shadows. If we can scan those in and print them out smaller, I think they will make adorable Christmas ornaments.
Here’s an example of the layout you can expect. the print isn’t terribly small, making it easy for even my second grader to open and read without overwhelm.
At the end of the book, you’ll find the sheet music for the song in the story. I LOVE this, because now we have not only gotten the kids reading for fun, and I have been inspired for gifts the kids can make with me, we can also incorporate a fun lesson on music. Start on this adventure yourself, click this link!
Brother Rafael and the rainy-Day Devils
This is my favorite book in this post. I once was speaking with a sister who told me when I asked if she ever questioned her choice to live the religious life, “If you don’t occasionally question your vocation in some way and make the choice to recommit regularly, is it even a real vocation?” That has stuck with me, and I think that this book teaches that questioning God’s calling on your life, or if you maybe got something wrong in discernment, it isn’t something to despair about.
In this story of Brother Rafael we can see how miserable he is and how the devil sends his “little devils” to poke him in his moment of weakness. They point out things that were better or easier about his old life and his mind wonders to all the magnificent ways he could have served the world if he hadn’t gone into the religious life. Or been more comfortable. Or even had fame and renown with the gifts and education he had. Through the story we see Brother Raphael continually choosing his faithfulness and to correct his attitude for one of gratitude and joy.
In the end of the story, Brother Raphael defeats the little devils temptations for discontent and ungratefulness for his life and even the temptations for what he could do instead of the vocation he has committed to. Everything gets better and he daydreams instead of glory and fame about dancing, laughing, throwing turnips and bringing joy to his fellow brothers and laughter to Jesus.
The end of the book gives a short overview of Brother Raphael’s real life and that this story was inspired by one of the journal entries we have from his personal diary. I LOVE the idea of teaching my kids from early on that faithfulness, gratefulness, and joy are a CHOICE in life and in our vocations, whatever vocation that may be. Add this beautiful book to your collection today, click here!
