Which books did you give this Christmas?

I gave the following:

• Ultraviolet, by RJ Anderson
• Between Shades of Gray, by Ruta Sepetys
• Divergent, by Veronica Roth
• The Amaranth Enchantment, by Julie Berry
• The Dragon’s Tooth, by ND Wilson
• A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness
• Breadcrumbs, by Anne Ursu
• Okay for Now, by Gary D. Schmidt
• The Last Thing I Remember, by Andrew Klavan

I think it’s worth noting that of the nine books listed there, I’ve only read four. Of the remaining five, four I bought after reading recommendations for online blogger/friends, and one I bought after reading a PW children’s newsletter. So…I obviously give more weight to bloggers I trust, than to professional journals.

What about you? Which books did you give and did you only give books you’d read or did you give books recommended by others?

The gals over at Books and Such did this last year, and I thought it was a great idea. So I’m stealing it this year. What are your favorite Christmas books? Children’s books for any age qualify, as long as they have a Christmas scene in them.

I liked the Christmas stories in the Little House books. Remember Laura with her corncob doll?

Father Christmas showing up in Narnia, in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, was wonderful. Always winter and never Christmas, was classic Lewis—a perfect, picturesque way to tell us what Narnia was like under the rule of the white witch. And when Christmas came, bringing spring with it, we rejoiced.

One of the sad things about reading and writing fantasy, is that I’ve had to miss out on Christmas in so many books. Do you have Christmas in your WIP? What if you put it in? Would it make the world seem more real to the reader?

The Harry Potter books had Christmas and Halloween, and those holidays added to the feeling that Hogwarts was a real school, I think. What if you’d written the books? Would you have had some students celebrating the Indian Festival of Lights and the Jewish Chanukah?

If you’re writing a historical novel you can put Christmas in to bring back memories of a simpler time, and if you’re writing fantasy? Consider putting in Christmas or some Feast Day to give readers a point of connection with your fantasy world.

And for now, what is your favorite Christmas story or Christmas scene in a novel?

Only four more days to enter the Thanksgiving poetry contests.

If you want free copies of This is the Feast and How to Drive Your Sister Crazy, now is the time to get in the game.

We have some lovely entries, already, but can always use more.

Today is the end of the This is the Feast blog tour with KidzBookBuzz.com.

And to wrap up this fun tour for this lovely book, I’ll have a give-away. No, you may not have my copy. I had to buy this puppy myself because the publisher was out of stock (the book is in it’s third printing–they keep selling out. Yeah!) and then I had to chase the author all the way to Buford to get the thing signed, and there ain’t no way I’m giving it up.

What kind of person would even ask such a thing, Margaret?
But here’s what I’ll do. I’ll order you a brand spanking new copy off of Amazon, along with another of Diane’s books that she is fond of, How to Drive Your Sister Crazy.

There you go, two books for the price of one.

And here are the contest rules:

Write a poem on Thanksgiving. You can write on what you do, what you like, what you hate, what you eat, what you are thankful for…anything you want. You can be funny or you can write a tearjerker. Just tell me something about Thanksgiving.

In an interview I just read at Looking Glass Reviews, Diane said she practised rhyming by changing the words to nursery rhymes. This helped her learn rhythm. So, yeah, I’m up for it. I can do this. Here is my Thanksgiving poem to start things off:

Silly Fred Bofa, sits on his sofa,
playing his X-box live.
He blows up one foe, then two in a row,
and cries, “Next time I’ll get me five!”

Hey, I can too do that. That’s my son on Thanksgiving and every other day of the year.
OK, I’ll try something a little more serious, this one set loosely to Wee Willie Winkie:

Father in heaven, we render thanks to you,

morning and evening, and all the long night through.

Thankful in plenty, thankful in loss,

for there is no better gift, than Christ upon the cross.

Your turn. Leave your poem in the comments.

You have until midnight, EST, Thanksgiving night. Entries will be judged by me and my stuffed, pleasantly-warmed-by-wine, brothers and sisters, and our children. Ties will be decided by my often confused and always cantankerous father. Judges’ decisions are final.

OK the KidzBookBuzz tour is rolling right along. Today I give you my review of Diane Z. Shores lovely picture book, This is the Feast.

The short answer is that if you want a story to introduce the Pilgrims to your kids using rhythmic language, and wonderful pictures, this one is a great choice.

Other bloggers on the tour:

the 160acrewoods, A Mom Speaks, Becky’s Book Reviews, Cafe of Dreams, Dolce Bellezza, Homeschool Buzz, KidzBookBuzz.com, Looking Glass Reviews, Maggie Reads, Maw Books Blog, Never Jam Today, Olive Tree, Our Big Earth, Quiverfull Family, Reading is My Superpower, SmallWorld Reads

Other books written by Diane Z. Shore: