Favorite Nativity Books

It seemed like a nice plan. This year as we read through our Nativity books, I thought I would post reviews. Some of them would be reposts from previous years. Some would be new reviews. It didn't happen. Life is often like that. I've long since quit beating myself up for things like this. Lots of other good stuff happened in our family this Advent season. And lots of stuff didn't happen. And Christ was born anew in our hearts as we reflected on His birth in the cave.

I've posted many reviews about some of our favorite Nativity books in the past. You can find them by clicking on the link at right for the posts tagged as "40 Books of Nativity." Or just click here. Since several people have emailed me and asked about other books, I'm posting some comments and links for some of our favorite new books here. Each year I try to give each boy a new Christmas book. Often St. Nicholas brings the books and leaves them in our stockings on December 6th. We've been doing this for quite a few years and so our collection is really growing. Sometimes I get over zealous (like this year) and the boys also get a Christmas book on Christmas Day. And we also have lots of grandparents and great grandparents who often give us books. All of this means that we have quite a few new favorites. Check out some of these for your collection if you'd like!

We Three Kings
This is definitely a new favorite. My #2 son got this for Christmas this year. I just LOVE the illustrations of Gennady Spirin. The text for this book is simply the lyrics to the carol "We Three Kings." The illustrations are spectacular and even include some nice images of six-winged cherubim.

The Friendly Beasts  And this is a work from another of my favorite children's illustrators, Tomie dePaola. It also uses the text of one of our favorite carols. This one is "The Friendly Beasts." It might be a great little preschool carol, but I love it for anyone. The book made a perfect Christmas gift for my #3 son on his first Christmas.

Through the Animals' Eyes: A Story of the First Christmas

One of my boys got this lovely book last Christmas from his Baba and Dedo. It simply tells the Nativity story, but it is illustrated with lovely simple illustrations which each feature a different animal that might have been present at the time of the first Nativity. It's fun to find the animals in the pictures. And the end of the book gives information about each kind of animal and what is known about it and its natural homeland. The lovely illustrations combined with simple story text and detailed "science information" at the end make it an interesting book for my oldest as well as my younger guys. And the photo here doesn't do it justice. It has a lovely hardbound cloth-covered binding with gold letters that make it quite a nice display piece during the holiday season.

First Christmas
This is another example of beautiful hardbound cloth-covered binding with beautiful gold text. The illustrations in this book are also fabulous. They are based on Coptic icons and are colorful beauties. The text is a bit long, but the gorgeous artwork makes up for it. I used this in my Church School class this year and both the children and parents loved it. Thanks again to our Baba and Dedo for this great find!

The Very First ChristmasThis book was given to my oldest last Christmas on the recommendation of my dear friend.  It definitely did not disappoint. We really enjoyed reading it this year. It gives lots of details about the first Christmas and is fairly consistent with Orthodox tradition about that Holy Night. It was a very fun read for my oldest especially. He thinks he's getting too old for picture books (though his quiet delight in "listening in" and the excited look on his face when we pull out an old favorite both betray that he is not too old), but this was a nice balance that seemed detailed enough for him to really enjoy and even discuss afterwards.

 

 Who Is Coming to Our House?

I'll confess that I just love that I again have an excuse to buy good board books. St. Nicholas brought this to my #3 son on his first St. Nicholas Day. It's a sweet little book about the animals preparing for the Christ child to be born in their "house." My 5-year-old loved it as much as his baby brother will love it next year. He even asked me to reread it several times in succession.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

What can I say? It's a classic. And we are Dr. Seuss lovers around here. Somehow, we've never had our own copy of this in our collection. This problem just had to be solved. So, St. Nicholas brought this to son #2 this year. Everyone needs an annual reminder about the Grinch and the Whos in Whoville, right?

Magic Tree House #44: A Ghost Tale for Christmas Time 

So, my boys love the Magic Treehouse series by Mary Pope Osborne. This is one of her newest and my oldest was really wanting it this year. Perfect timing for Christmas. This story deals with Charles Dickens and how he wrote his classic A Christmas Carol. When I bought it, I realized that we really need to add the original Dicken's classic to our collection. So, that's a plan for next year. I think that will be good timing for #1 to try out a little Dickens.

Why the Chimes Rang and Other Stories (Illustrated Edition)
After reading my posts about our Nativity books two years ago, a dear friend who has known me since my birth sent this book to my family as a gift. She told me that for many years it was her Christmas tradition to read the title story, "Why the Chimes Rang" to her three boys (who are now grown men and fathers and also my lifelong friends). My boys and I really enjoyed this story this year. I know it's going to become a favorite tradition for us. It's reminiscent of the themes in the Drummer Boy, with a bit of a different approach. I cried. But my boys are quite used to that.

I'll add these thoughts about reading books during Advent (or any time of year). Deliberately reading through our favorite books each Advent is such a joy. One of my favorite parts of this tradition is that it reinforces for me the great benefit in sharing great literature with my children. It often surprises me how much sheer delight they get from revisiting stories that they've enjoyed in years past. My oldest sighs with excitement when we pull out The Gift of the Magi each year. How I love that he delights in this classic O. Henry that I first met in the 7th grade! And I can't wait until #2 is ready to really enjoy it. Also this year we read together a special book for me. It is Kate Douglas Wiggins' The Bird's Christmas Carol. This book is special because it was a favorite of my great grandmother. When I was growing up we lived many, many miles from her and rarely saw her. In fact, I only saw in her in person twice before I turned 18. (After that I started making a habit of visiting her almost yearly until her death at age 101 when I was 24.) However, she was a huge part of my childhood thanks to beautiful letters written in her lovely penmanship and also thanks to the miracle of cassette tape players. She would record herself telling us stories and reading us books on cassette tapes and then send them to us by mail. My sister and I often went to sleep at night listening to her read stories to us. Oh, how I loved to hear her lovely and kind voice! And how I remember the words of the Wiggins story read from her lips. I had a copy of it myself, but when I read it silently, I always heard her voice. So, this year, it was so touching to share it with my boys. And it was even better that they absolutely loved it and waited eagerly for lunch each day to hear the next chapter. It is funny and sad and beautiful all at once. And I can't wait to share it with them again next year. And the next year. And the next year. It's as fun as it was to listen to it each night. And the next night. And the next night. Literature bridges the years and generations in fantastic ways.

Good Fast!

It's day 4 of the Nativity fast and we're well on our way with some of our favorite family traditions. You can read about them here and here. In the past I've done reviews of our Nativity books. You can find those by choosing the tag on the right for "40 books of Nativity." We've added some to our collection since then, so look for new reviews here soon.

Unfinished Business: Nativity Books #35-40

It's almost Lent and I've got to finish my incomplete task from the Nativity Fast or I'll never manage to get things picked up and going on this blog again! I've been avoiding facing this blog because I knew that I never managed to finish posting about our Forty Books of Nativity. You can read about the tradition here. In those last days before Christmas, I just lost all my momentum. My blogging here encouraged some family and friends for Christmas gift ideas for my kids. So we finished out the season with quite a few beautiful new Nativity books to add to our collection. They have been enjoyed and then packed away to emerge again this coming December 15. I'll include them in the blog posts next Nativity. However, here are the last six books we read this past season. They are all Arch Books, as I filled in the last days with various Arch Books from our huge collection.

On the Sunday before Christmas we read Abraham's Big Test in honor of the Sunday of the Forefathers.





On the 20th we read Joseph's Christmas Story, which is probably my least favorite of the Arch Books about Christmas. I'll probably omit it next year. Too often the story of Joseph is told with too much adding to the story and not keeping with Orthodox tradition.





On the 21st we read My Christmas Prayer Book, which is a nice way to teach children little prayers of thanksgiving in that they can say.





On the 22nd we read Just Look in the Stable, which has really nice illustrations.

On the 23rd we read Mary's Christmas Story.





And finally, on the 24th we read On a Silent Night.


And with that, I can now go about the business of Lent, with a slightly more clear conscience! This unfinished task is complete!

Nativity Book #34 - Born on Christmas Morn

This is the thirty fourth of my postings about our 40 books of Nativity. You can read about the tradition here. 

Today's book was another of our Arch Books which I've blogged about in the past here. It is Born on Christmas Morn. This is book is fine, but not one of favorites. It kind of gets into why Jesus "had" to die for us at the end and isn't entirely an Orthodox representation of the events of Holy Week. But the Christmas part is fine.

Nativity Book #33 - My Merry Christmas

This is the thirty third of my postings about our 40 books of Nativity. You can read about the tradition here.

Today's book was another of our Arch Books which I've 

blogged about in the past here. Actually, for this last week, all of the books will be Arch Books. We're down to those in our collection. We've got a few other new books arriving for Christmas, so I might blog about those later and they will be added to our basket next year (and maybe then I'll remove some of the general Bible story books). Today's book is My Merry Christmas Arch Book. It tells the Nativity story, but I like that in the end it talks about how to remember Christ's birth while decorating the tree, and eating delicious food and getting gifts. It's a nice way to explain how some of our regular traditions can be linked to our faith.

Nativity Book #32 - The Nutcracker

This is the thirty second of my postings about our 40 books of Nativity. You can read about the tradition here.

Today's book is The Nutcracker with original text by E.T.A Hoffman and great illustrations by Maurice Sendak. This book is such a treasure to have, but honestly, we haven't managed read the whole thing today, because it's so long. At some point, I'd like to have a shorter version of the Nutcracker.

Nativity Book #31 - Tomie's Little Christmas Pageant

This is the thirty first of my postings about our 40 books of Nativity. You can read about the tradition here.

Yesterday's book was a little board book called Tomie's Little Christmas Pageant. It tells the story of Christ's Nativity with illustrations by Tomie dePaola which show a children's pageant. It's kind of fun, and my 3yo especially enjoyed it.

Nativity Book #30 - Daniel in the Lion's Den

This is the thirtieth of my postings about our 40 books of Nativity. You can read about the tradition here.

Sunday was two Sundays before Christmas which means it was the Sunday of the Forefathers. So, our book was about one of the Forefathers - the Prophet Daniel. We read an old classic Little Golden Book, Daniel in the Lion's Den. I think this book is out of print, but there are lots of old copies available in various places online. It's a nice retelling of the story of Daniel spanning reigns of Kings Nebuchanezzar, Balthazzar and Darius. The illustrations are nice and we especially liked seeing the drawing of Nebuchanezzar's Ishtar Gate which we studied in Art History this year.

Nativity Book #29 - North Star, St. Herman of Alaska

This is the twenty ninth of my postings about our 40 books of Nativity. You can read about the tradition here.

Saturday's book was, of course, North Star, St. Herman of Alaska. I've blogged about it in the past. It's an absolute must-read on the feast of St. Herman and is a magnificent book by Dorrie Papademetriou, This has been a favorite since my youngest was less than a year old. The illustrations are so bright and eye-catching. And the story is told beautifully. We love the stories (and illustrations) of St. Herman feeding a bear with his bare hands, saving the island from a tidal wave with the icon of the Mother of God, saving the village from fire by digging a trench, and especially, making cookies for all the children of Spruce Island. And it's so good to hear over and over his words, "From this day, from this hour, from this very minute, we should love God above all and fulfill His holy will." This feast is also the patronal feast of our homeschool (my oldest chose our patron - probably based largely on loving this book since he was a toddler). And it's the day we put up our Christmas Tree!

Nativity Book #28 - Silent Night

This is the twenty eighth of my postings about our 40 books of Nativity. You can read about the tradition here.

Today's book was another book in the Arch Books series by Concordia Press. I posted about this series in the past here. The book is Silent Night and is available from Concordia here. This is just a nice little retelling of the Nativity story with reasonable, but a little too cheesy illustrations. Remember, though, Arch Books are cheap ($2.50 per book), so if you find a few you like, it's easy to order several.

Nativity Book #26 - The Nativity of Our Lord

This is the twenty sixth of my postings about our 40 books of Nativity. You can read about the tradition here.

Wednesday's book was another book from the series by Sister Elayne/Mother Melania and illustrated by Bonnie Gillis. This one is The Nativity of Our Lord and is available from Conciliar Press at the link given. I've blogged about this series in the past here. These can also be purchased from Archangels Books. Martha recently mentioned that she doesn't really like these little books, because it seems that something is missing. I actually really love Mother Melania's poetry in these books, because she imparts the depth of our theology as it pertains to each of the feasts. But Martha is right in that these aren't necessarily thorough narratives of each feast. Sometimes I stop to explain more detail, or discuss the very powerful imagery visible in the watercolor illustrations.

Nativity Book #27 - The Gift of the Magi

This is the twenty seventh of my postings about our 40 books of Nativity. You can read about the tradition here.

Yesterday's book was an illustrated version of one of my favorite short stories in American literature. It is O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi with illustrations by Lisbeth Zwerger. My oldest son got this in his stocking from St. Nicholas last year. I blogged about it here last year. I knew the language would be a little advanced for him in some places, but with some paraphrasing her really enjoyed it last year. This year I was pleasantly surprised when he opened it yesterday and said, "Oh, this is one of my favorite books!" We read it over breakfast and when I started to paraphrase or explain some things, he told me to stop because he remembered the story and understood it. Honestly, I read this story for the first time in high school. I am delighted that he has already learned to love it. It always makes me cry, of course.

Nativity Book #25 - Jesus is Born

This is the twenty fifth of my postings about our 40 books of Nativity. You can read about the tradition here.

Today's book is a wonderful depiction of the Nativity using the Nativity icon. This book is useful in so many ways for children, beginning with the very smallest. It is Jesus is Born by Sergia Clare Anatolios. I found this book in a parish bookstore when my oldest was just a baby and asked my mom and dad to buy it for him for his first Christmas. We have been enjoying it ever since, but the last two years we forgot to even read it and as a result it was new to my youngest this year. (Yet another reason that I'm glad we're doing this Nativity book tradition this year!) This is such a simple little book. I believe that if you only have one Nativity book (especially if you have toddlers) it should be this one!! There is really no text. The book just builds the Nativity icon piece by piece, page by page until it is complete on the last page. The words just identify the parts of the icon. So, the first two pages are The Cave, and the icon starts with just the cave. Then Plants and Trees, and the new picture is of the cave with the plants and trees added. Next is Manger, and the manger is added to the icon. Really it's a nice simple way to teach children about the Nativity icon. There are lots of ways to use this book (other than just reading it, which is also fun with little bitty toddlers). The author provides some nice suggestions in the front. Today my three year old had fun seeing each new part of the icon and pointing it out in the picture which grows in detail with each turned page. It's also fun to talk about the parts of the Nativity story while reading this book. So, there are good opportunities to talk about the manger, the shepherds, the angels, the wise men, etc. Thank you to St. Nectarios Press for making this book available!!

Nativity Book #24 - The Visit of the Wise Men

This is the twenty fourth of my postings about our 40 books of Nativity. You can read about the tradition here.

Our book for today is one of the best Arch Books we own. I really love it. It is The Visit of the Wise Men. It was published in 1988 and is a great example of the really nice older Arch Books. It tells the story of the coming of the Wise Men, including their visit to Herod and their dream to go back home a different way. The rhymed verse text seems natural (not forced like the rhymes in some of the Arch Books) and the illustrations are quite lovely. Sadly, it seems to be out of print and I can't find it available anywhere on the web.

Nativity Book #23 - Who Was Born this Special Day?

This is the twenty third of my postings about our 40 books of Nativity. You can read about the tradition here.

Yesterday's book was Who Was Born This Special Day? by Eve Bunting and Leonid Gore. This such a pretty book and I've blogged about it before. It has gentle light illustrations and is really written for a toddler, but we all enjoy it.

Nativity Book #22 - The Legend of St. Nicholas

This is the twenty second of my postings about our 40 books of Nativity. You can read about the tradition here.

Of course, on December 6th (after the gifts were found in the stockings, and they had been eaten and enjoyed for a while), we had to open and read this book about St. Nicholas. I've already said that The Life of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker is my favorite children's book about St. Nicholas. But this one is a close, close second for our favorite.

This book is The Legend of St. Nicholas by Demi. I should first mention something very interesting that happened when we opened this book this year. In language arts and history this year with my second grader, we've been talking a lot about legends and what legends are. (For example, the story of King Arthur is a legend. He may have existed, but we don't know for certain, and the stories written about him are legends.) Well, when this beloved book came out, my 7yo immediately said. "But there's one big problem. This book is NOT a legend!" Yep. Good call kiddo!

Demi is not a specifically Orthodox writer, but she does a very respectful job telling the story of this saint, including many, many stories from his life. I only have to correct it a bit in one or two places. And it DOES tell the story about St. Nicholas hitting Arius which we really love, but not in quite enough detail. The best part about this book is probably the illustrations. They are wonderful - especially those images of St. Nicholas inside churches. They are great depictions of the interior of Byzantine churches.

Nativity Book #21 - The Life of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker

This is the twenty first of my postings about our 40 books of Nativity. You can read about the tradition here.

Happy Feast of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (a little late)! All of our celebrating in the past week has left me with little time to blog. So I've got a lot of catching up to do.

On Friday, December 5th, our book was in preparation of the feast that would come the next day. We opened and read The Life of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. This is certainly my favorite English language children's book about St. Nicholas. It has nice detailed iconographic illustrations and the text is told in a gentle rhyming verse. It gives many details from the life of St. Nicholas, including his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. But I will say, it leaves out one of our favorite stories - that of St. Nicholas hitting Arius for teaching heresy. Nicholas was defrocked, but that night the Mother of God appeared to the Bishops in a dream and told them to return Nicholas to his Episcopal seat. My boys really like the fact that Nicholas was so passionate about preserving the true teaching of our faith that his passions got the better of him and he just smacked Arius! But even without this story, we really like this little paperback.

Nativity Book #20 - The Donkey and the Golden Light

This is the twentieth of my postings about our 40 books of Nativity. You can read about the tradition here.

Twenty days! We are halfway through the Fast and celebrating the feasts of St. Barbara and St. John of Damascus today!

Today's book is one I've blogged about in the past. I'm just repeating that blog here. The book is The Donkey and the Golden Light, which is a lovely folktale about a donkey whose life is closely tied to that of Christ. I won't give away the details. It also has beautiful illustrations. These were inspired by the paintings of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. In the back there is an explanation about each illustration and the painting that inspired it. We've had this book for years. Last year we studied the art of Pieter Bruegel in school with my then first grader. I didn't even remember it's connection to this children's book. Then when we pulled out this book to read this year, my son recognized one of the illustrations as being just like one of the paintings we had studied!! One of the things I really like about this book is that at the back it lists all of the illustrations along with an explanation of which Bruegel painting inspired that illustration. So this book would be great for art study in addition to being beautiful as a Christmas (and Pascha!) story.