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.
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.
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.
Though it makes us all a little sad, we resorted to the artificial tree this year. We all prefer to get a real one, but some years, convenience, allergies, and travel take precedence. 
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!
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.
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.
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.
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!!
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.
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.
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.
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.
oday'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.
Yesterday's book was the classic The Little Drummer Boy with the wonderful illustrations by Ezra Jack Keats. We sing along as we read this one . . . I've been told many times that "The Little Drummer Boy" is Fr. Roman Braga's favorite Christmas carol.
Tuesday we opened and read A Gift from St. Nicholas by Carole Kismaric. My mom gave us this book several years ago and I blogged about it last year on my fasting blog. This is a story about Christmas Eve in Holland, a retelling of a story from an old German book. The illustrations are wonderful and it's a magical story about St. Nicholas and his helpers. This is just a folktale, not a story about the actual saint, but the message is very beautiful.. My kids beg to hear this story about the little girl Cecile and the old lady Trinchen Mutser and the candy shop called The Sugared Nostril. Today Daddy got to read it to them at lunchtime and they all enjoyed it.
Yes, it's true. The book for Monday was The Polar Express (the original book, that is). I love this book. It always makes me cry at the end when it talks about those who truly believe. In a way, it's funny that I like it because I never had Santa growing up. And we don't really do Santa either. (Of course, we DO St. Nicholas on Dec. 6th and without us making a deal about it, my kids to BELIEVE that St. Nicholas comes and fills their stockings, though my oldest figured out the truth last week . . . ) Maybe I'll write more on that whole challenge later. But the point is, this book isn't really tied to a specific life memory about Santa for any of us. And yet we love it. We love the train (and the "Hot Chocolate" scene from the movie) and we love the bell. And really, this book is a great lesson about believing even when we can't see something. And that is the message we always discuss at the end of the book. What do we believe in? Are we really those who believe? Do we believe in God even when we can't see him? Could we hear the bell always like the narrator? God willing . . .
Happy Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle and of St. Troyen of Saintes! Both are important namedays in our family, so this is a big feast! Since St. Andrew was the First-Called, today's book is about him and the other Apostles. We read Twelve Who Followed Jesus from the Arch Books collection. I posted about these books in this previous post. This is one of the newer Arch Books, and as I've mentioned before, I often think that the older ones are better. This is the story of the calling of the Apostles, including Andrew and Peter as the first. I think the cartoonish illustrations are a little bothersome, but the text is mostly OK. Another Arch Book on the same topic, is Jesus Calls His Disciples. Unfortunately it is now out of print. I was glad to have something about the Apostles for today, but unfortunatley I don't have a good children's book specifically about the Apostle Andrew. I really think a need in English language Orthodox Education is children's books about the lives of the Apostles. We now have some good Bible story books available, especially including the very good Children's Bible Reader, which we read from almost everyday. And there are good adult-level works on the lives of the Apostles, such as red hardbound book The Lives of the Holy Apostles from Dormition Skete. But we really need something about these saints written for children. So, any writers out there, this is my call for your work. If I wait until I have time to do it, we'll all be waiting 10 or 15 years!
This morning we opened and read the Christmas stories from Tomie de Paola's Book of Bible Stories. I really love this book of Bible stories. The text is pretty much taken straight from the New International Version of the Bible. While, I don't really like the NIV translation for adult reading, I do like that this children's book uses text straight from the Bible. My oldest son, who has been reading from the Gospel of Luke at night, immediately recognized that the text was straight from the Gospel. I love Tomie dePaola's illustrations. They are gentle and lovely: not realistic, not iconographic, but respectful with a stylized sort of primitive look. We were able to use three sections from this book this morning with lots of pretty illustrations: An Angel Comes to Mary, Jesus is Born, and The Visit of the Magi.
But I'd really like to find some good books to use for our Thanksgiving celebration and for learning about the holiday and history. Last year, we read this very good book: The First Thanksgiving. It was included as part of our K12 First Grade Language Arts curriculum. It's a pretty thorough retelling of the history of the Pilgrims and their relationship with Samoset, Squanto and Massasoit. It also ended with a mention of Abraham Lincoln's proclamation of the holiday in 1863. My kids enjoyed it and the oldest remembered some of the details from when we read it last year. But I know there have to be some other great books out there. Does anyone else have any suggestions for good books for Thanksgiving studies?
Today's book is a new one to us. My mom brought it when she visited last week so that I could wrap it up and add it to the basket. It is The First Christmas Candy Canes, a legend told by Berniece Rabe. It's a sweet little legend about a shepherd girl who makes little red striped candy canes which are then involved with the birth of Christ. I've heard different stories about the Christian symbolism of the candy cane, and seen a couple different books, but never this one. This is just a nice little story and the kids enjoyed it.
Writing down what we are thankful for on paper leaves to decorate the dinner table. 7yo is thankful for his family, trees, the sky, the earth, friends and Looney Tunes! 
This morning we opened and read a wonderful book called The Miracle of St. Nicholas by Gloria Whelan. It is a beautiful story about the reopening of a church dedicated to St. Nicholas on Christmas in a Russian village in the late 20th century. I can only ever get about halfway through the book before I start crying. The story is so beautiful, because it is so true. Since I lived in Russia in the 1990's I saw many such examples of abandoned churches being reopened after 60 or 70 years. The empty, dirty churches were slowly refilled with icons which had been hidden in homes for years and slowly also refilled with faithful believers. My boys really like this book. This year, even the 3yo loved it. And he told me at the end, "I don't like those soldiers! They were mean." (He was speaking of revolutionary soldiers during the Civil War or a bit later in the Soviet Union.) Good book to read as we celebrate today the freedoms and gifts we have as Americans!
The book we opened this morning is A Child's First Bible, a simple bible story book written for very young children. We read the Nativity story from this book, beginning with the Annunciation and ending with the Presentation in the Temple and the Flight to Egypt. All of those stories spanned about 10 or 12 pages. I have mixed emotions about this bible story book. The illustrations are OK, though not great. It's certainly not enough text for older children (and in fact, my 7yo didn't really even want to sit and read this with us this morning). Most stories are told in just two or three sentences (about 3 sentences for Jonah and the whale). But, it's been good at times for a very quick intro to bible stories for my boys at ages 1 and 2. And actually the 3yo really enjoyed it this morning, though he's already ready for more text and was sure I hadn't read all of the story when we were finished. Still, it was a quick way to tell the whole Nativity story as we continue to remind ourselves of the details of this story throughout the fast.
Today's book proves why it's good for us to do this tradition. It's a Christmas book which has been on our shelf for years . . . and we've never read until today. I honestly can't remember where or how we got it. Maybe one of my reader's gave it to us a while back?
Today's book is a nice Christmas book from the Archbooks collection available from Concordia Press. I wrote about this collection here. The Shepherd's Christmas is one of the better books in this series. The illustrations are a little too cartoonish for my taste, but the story is nice. It's short (good for wiggly three year olds) and is a retelling of the Christmas story from the perspective of the shepherds. It is specifically about a little boy shepherd who witnesses the Birth of Christ (and the coming of the angels) on his first night to watch over the sheep with the other shepherds. The message in the end is that though the boy is afraid, he finds comfort in Christ. Today it provided a nice opportunity to stop and talk to the kids about this idea when we're already otherwise distracted by preparations for Thanksgiving!
Our book for yesterday was The First Christmas, A pop-up Nativity book from DK Publishers. My boys got this as an Advent gift from my parents several years ago. It was really fun that year because it comes with a little pop-up Nativity set made from card stock. It was quite fun to play with these that first year. After that, the clutter got the better of me and the little paper figures went to the trash. But the book is still fun because it has some great pop-up scenes on the pages.
Today's book was one of my favorite books by John Speirs: The Little Boy's Christmas Gift. It is a lovely tale about the journey of the Magi which is akin to the story of The Little Drummer Boy. It is illustrated with gorgeous illustrations inspired by the work of the Brueghels and old illuminated manuscripts. My boys love to find the little boy following at the back of the caravan in each illustration.
Yesterday's book was The Story of Mary the Mother of God written and illustrated by Dorrie Papademetriou. Since Nov. 21 is the Feast of the Entrance of the Mother of God into the Temple, we opened and read this book. I love this book mostly because I really love the bright illustrations. It tells the story of the life of the Mother of God in simple words for all ages, including her birth, her entrance into the temple, her and the Annunciation.
Today's book we opened and read as a preparation for tomorrow's feast: The Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple. It is part of the Feasts of the Church series by Sister Elayne which I described here. It is available from Archangel Books here. (By the way, Archangel books has a very nice online store, but their storefront is even better. If you are ever in the St. Louis area, it is really worth the trip. It's a lovely store with lots of Orthodox books, icons, unique gifts and many neat "finds" which I haven't seen in other Orthodox book stores.)
Today's book is The Miraculous Child which is a Christmas folktale from Russia, told by Aleksi Currier and illustrated by Nadezda Glazunova. This is a beautiful story about almsgiving and the miracle of the Christ's love for us. It is told in verse, which is a little long for smaller children, but my 7yo really enjoys it now. And in fact, my 3yo listened attentively to it this afternoon, when offered a snack to eat while listening. In some past years I have just paraphrased it because just enjoying the lovely illustrations was enough
This is the fourth of my postings about our 40 books of Nativity. You can read about the tradition here.
For many years, we've enjoyed this collection of Christmas stories called Treasury of Christmas
We put up our tree on St. Herman Day (December 13), but I thought we could still use this tradition. So, this past weekend, I gathered up all of our children's Christmas books. I had about 25. Then, with a little creativity (pulling in books about various saints and feasts during the fast period and also some Bible story books from which we can read the Nativity story) I managed to pull together 40 books! I wrapped them all (yes, I'm that excited and crazy) and put enough for the first two weeks in a basket by the fireplace. We'll be opening one book each day and reading it. Once it's opened, it goes in another basket to be enjoyed again through the Nativity season. The kids are so excited about this! And frankly, so am I. I'll be posting information about each book we read on a daily (or almost daily) basis here.
The Nativity Fast has begun and Mary, Joseph and the Donkey are on their way to the cave in Bethlehem. Last year I posted about our Nativity path here. We're moving along with the Fast already, and I'll post about some of our activities throughout the Fast. Check for posts of recipes and menus on my fasting blog. Good Fast to all!
