Wanted: Monsters

I have a recommendation request:  A friend of mine (Madelyn, also a children's writer) is looking for monster books to read aloud at her daughter's preschool fundraiser.  Friendly monsters preferred, for obvious reasons.  She'll be starting with Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak ("Because how could you not?")and Leonardo, the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems (coincidentally one of my favorite Willems books) and needs a couple more to round out the selection.

We don't read a lot of monster books over here ourselves:  Leo doesn't like them (monsters or their books), and Milly's not terribly interested (ha!), so I haven't been much help.  Now I'm curious, too:  What are your favorite monster books for read-aloud?  Just don't scare me!

And Maple Syrup Season

Happily, Pancake Week coincides with maple syrup season.  We didn't make it to a sugaring-off this year (they happen early in the mid-Atlantic), but at least we can read this book:  Maple Syrup Season by Ann Purmell; illustrated by Jill Weber (Holiday House, 2008).  We read Purmell and Weber's Christmas Tree Farm (Holiday House, 2006) many times last December:  it was a refreshingly different holiday book, one of my new favorites.  Leo and Milly were interested in how tree farming (as opposed to the more familiar vegetable farming) works, and they loved Weber's illustrations of pines, spruces, firs, and forest animals.  Like Christmas Tree Farm, Maple Syrup Season focuses on a family tradition--of sugaring, this time--and includes lots of back matter about what to pour on your pancakes.

[Newbery note:  One of my favorite Newbery Medal winners, in memory at least, is 1957's Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorenson; illustrated by Beth and Joe Krush.  I'm rereading it now, the same copy I read as a girl; and I'll post about it here and at the Newbery Project site if I can come up with something that is more review than just happy reminiscence.]

Apples in winter

We read most of our apple books in the fall, but somehow we've managed to read four in the last week.  I love this kind of reading coincidence and am always on the lookout for it: it's the idea behind bookstogether.  In this case, the apple books aren't about picking apples or making them into apple pie (both good things that happen a lot in apple books), but about making apple friends (slightly more unusual).  Here are two of them:

   

• In A Friend for Dragon by Dav Pilkey, a snake tricks Dragon into thinking a shiny red apple is his friend.  The two spend a wonderful day together ("You are a good listener," says Dragon).  But Dragon becomes concerned when the apple won't talk to him the next morning ("Maybe it's a crab apple," suggests the doctor).  What happens next is tragic and hilarious and ultimately very satisfying.  This is the first of five early readers featuring Dragon; we love them all, but A Friend for Dragon is my favorite.
• In The Apple Doll by Elisa Kleven (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2007), Lizzy is worried that she won't make any friends at school.  She turns an apple from her favorite tree into a doll she names Susanna, but her new friend isn't welcome at school, either (no food or toys allowed during class, except on sharing day).  Lizzy keeps Susanna at home, until she finds a way to make her into a real doll--and make new friends at school, too.  Instructions for how to make an apple doll are at the back of the book (thankfully, because both Leo and Milly now want to make one.  So do I!).  And I love the endpapers in this book:  apples in the front, apple dolls in the back.

In the other two books, Miss Hickory's body is made of an apple twig, and Little Little Sister grows from an apple seed.  Really, how many books about apple people can there be?

The Buffalo Storm

The Buffalo Storm (Clarion, 2007) is a beautiful book.  Beautifully written by Katherine Applegate in her picture book debut; beautifully illustrated in watercolor and pastel by Jan Ormerod.  The kids (and I) have wanted to read it over and over again, for different reasons:  I'm moved by brave Hallie's having to leave her grandmother behind when she and her parents go west to Oregon on a wagon train; Leo likes the part in Wyoming where Hallie rescues a buffalo calf and then faces the buffalo storm; and Milly likes the end, Hallie at home in Oregon with a new baby sister wrapped in her grandmother's quilt.  I think that covers the whole story!  Reviewed by Tasha Saecker of Kids Lit here; I remembered her excellent review when I saw The Buffalo Storm on the new books cart at the library (although I think I would have checked it out anyway; Ormerod's illustrations are breathtaking).  And highly recommended by me, here.

Poetry Friday: If You'll Be My Valentine

I think the best Valentine is a poem.  Preferably one written just for you.  The little boy in this book by Cynthia Rylant (illustrated by Fumi Kosaka; HarperCollins, 2005) writes a simple Valentine poem for everyone in his family, plus the cat, the dog, his teddy bear, and the bird that sings outside his window.  Each of the poems (there are ten of them) has the same format:  they all begin with "If you'll be my valentine" and go on to say, in four short lines, what the little boy will do with or for the recipient in return.  The one he writes to his mother is (not surprisingly) my favorite:

If you'll be my valentine
I'll pour our tea at three.
Spicy cookies
and an orange
just for you and me.

Okay, it's a simple poem (a little boy is supposed to have written it, after all).  But I love the specificity of it:  tea is at three (the illustration of the boy and his mother having tea shows the clock in the background); the cookies are spicy.  Also that the boy is doing something with his mom that she would particularly like, although he is certainly enjoying it, too.  This is true of all the poems:  in another, the boy promises to pull his little sister in the wagon so "we can sing and talk."  Milly, a little sister herself, likes that one best.

I had planned to write an acrostic poem for each of the kids and my husband this Valentine's Day.  I still might (even though my husband's name has an X in it, and it's hard to work an x-ray or a xylophone into a Valentine).  Or maybe I'll write these instead:  5 lines, first line "If you'll be my valentine," last four lines ABCA and a promise to do something special together.

Congratulations and good fortune!

Leo's second-grade class started their unit on Imperial China with a parade through the halls of their school this afternoon.  It was terrific (and terrifically loud):  drums beating, accordion-pleated paper dragons waving, kids shouting "Gung Hay Fat Choy!"  They'll be studying China for the next six weeks (so you can expect some Chinese content here at books together).

At home, we had dumplings for dinner and read Long-Long's New Year:  A Story about the Chinese Spring Festival by Catherine Gower; illustrated by He Zhihong (Tuttle, 2005).  I like that this book is set in (rural, contemporary) China; it's a nice complement to the many books about Lunar New Year celebrations that focus on Asian-American families and communities.  Author Catherine Gower lived and worked in China for two years; and illustrator He Zhihong was born in China and studied traditional Chinese painting there.  Both story and art are authentic in their cultural--and emotional--details.

The story:  Long-Long and his grandfather set off on a bicycle cart loaded with cabbages to sell at the town market.  We see Long-Long helping out at the bicycle repair shop; meeting the cook at a street restaurant; and, after all the cabbage is sold (some to the cook), buying gifts for his family at the Hundred Goods Store.  All around him people are making ready for the New Year celebration.  At the end of the story, Long-Long sees a parade; eats a tang-hu-lu (a stick of toffee fruit); and goes home to his village with the things he and his grandfather have bought for their own family's New Year celebration.  The art:  A beautiful series of detailed double-page spreads.

At the back of the book, the author provides a note on "The Very First Chinese Spring Festival" and a glossary of Chinese words in the story (including the Chinese characters; this came in very handy when we wanted to make a Fu sign for our front door).  Sometimes I think I should have named this blog At the Back of the Book; I love back matter and think it's an important but often overlooked part of the package for many of my favorite kinds of books.  Like this one.  Highly recommended.

And it's not too late:  Spring Festival (the celebration that begins on the first day of the Lunar New Year) lasts fifteen days!

Poetry Friday: Mother Earth and Her Children

The illustrations in this rhyming picture book won an unusual award:  Best in Show at the 2006 International Quilt Festival in Houston.  They began as a single quilt inspired by quilt artist Sieglinde Schoen Smith's favorite children's book, Etwas von den Wurzelkindern ("Something About the Root Children"). Written by Sibylle von Olfers, it was originally published in Germany in 1906.  Mother Earth and Her Children:  A Quilted Fairy Tale (Breckling Press, 2007) is the English translation of that book, illustrated entirely with details from Smith's award-winning quilt.  Yes, that cover image is from the quilt.

Renowned fairy tale scholar Jack Zipes translated von Olfers's short text about the changing seasons into English rhyming verse for the first time.  Here are the Root Children getting ready for spring:

"All are quick and ever ready
To sew spring clothes. Their hands are steady.
With needles, scissors, spools of thread,
They measure and cut, full steam ahead.

And when the children's clothes are done,
Kind Mother Earth admires each one."

I like the way these lines now recall Smith's work "with needles, scissors, spools of thread" as well as the Root Children's.

[This is the English edition with the original art by von Olfers (Floris Books, 1980) that inspired Smith; plus an article about copyright responsibility re: Mother Earth and her Children.  In case you're inspired to recreate your favorite picture book in some other medium.]

Picture book finalists (Cybils)

I've read three of the seven Fiction Picture Book finalists for the Cybils.  All three of them are wonderful books (of course), but reading them together, I was struck by how different from one another they are, and how difficult the job of choosing one winner would be.

Leaves by David Ezra Stein (Putnam's, 2007)

For the littlest picture book readers (and listeners) on up; about the seasons of a bear's first year.  Spare text and expressive art, created with bamboo pen and a warm palette of watercolors.  This one feels timeless.

The Incredible Book-Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers (Philomel, 2007)

Eating was a common medieval metaphor for reading.  This boy, however, literally consumes his books.  He could be forgiven for taking a bite of this one's creamy, krafty matte pages.  I love the art, which was created with paint, pencil and Letraset "on pages from old books that libraries were getting rid of, the artist found, or people were throwing out."

Four Feet, Two Sandals by Karen Lynn Williams and Khadra Mohammed, illustrated by Doug Chayka (Eerdmans, 2007)

This book is dedicated to Zanib, a refugee girl who asked for a book about children like her (read more about how it came to be written at the author's website).  The girls who share the sandals in this story are living in a refugee camp outside of Peshawar, but the themes of friendship and separation are universal.

[Okay, I also read Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity by Mo Willems (Hyperion, 2007).  You probably have (too).  And did you hear it won a Caldecott Honor?  Of course you did.  So you don't need me to tell you how good it is, although I will if you want.]

How does one choose a winner from among these books?  Hmm, maybe I need to take a closer look at the judging criteria for the Cybils.

Little Hoot

Look at this!  A new book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Jen Corace:  Little Hoot (Chronicle, 2008).  It was well-reviewed by Elizabeth Bird at A Fuse #8 Production yesterday (1/16/08), but we would have wanted it anyway:  we loved Little Pea, Milly especially.  The two books do seem to have a parallel plot structure, don't they?

little Pea : little Hoot
must eat candy : must stay up late
prefers spinach : wants to go to bed

Well, it wasn't broken.  And Little Hoot ups the ante with the adorable owls.  Corace's illustrations (rendered in ink and watercolor) are more detailed here than in Pea, though there's still plenty of white space, and the book is beautifully designed.  I think we may love it even more.

Is it possible to feel sorry for a pea?

[Milly has a small collection (it numbers 5, mostly noneditioned) of Jen Corace letterpress prints, which we started for her after we discovered Little Pea.  Our favorites came from Mahar Drygoods; see also Tiny Showcase.  Not affiliated, etc.]

Saint George and the Dragon [updated!]

We attended "An Elizabethan Festival" given by the Washington Revels ("Celebrating tradition through music, dance and drama") this morning.  If you like this sort of thing, you'll love the Revels.  Leo and Milly were enraptured.  Their favorite part was the mummers' play of Saint George and the Dragon; so we read this classic edition, retold by Margaret Hodges and illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman (Little, Brown; 1984), when we got home.  Hodges's text, adapted from Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene, is lovely but a little wordy (can you blame her?).  Hyman's illustrations, however, are magnificent.  This book won the Caldecott in 1985.

I'm still looking for a picture book about Saint George and the Dragon that captures the comic feel of the mummers' play, though.  Any suggestions?

[Updated to add:  Many thanks to Debbie of the Washington Revels, who commented with a link (scroll down) to Saint George and the Dragon:  A Mummer's Play by Revels founder John Langstaff with woodcuts by David Gentleman (Atheneum, 1973; OOP but available at the Revels Store).  It includes the script with music, instructions for performing the sword dance (look out, Milly!), stage directions and costume suggestions.  In short, exactly what I was looking for.  Thanks again!]

Little Neighbors on Sunnyside Street

Let's pretend that three-year-old Milly were guest-blogging here at bookstogether.  She would definitely want to write up Little Neighbors on Sunnyside Street by Jessica Spanyol (Candlewick, 2007).  With good reason:  it's the perfect book for preschoolers.  They get to meet some of the little neighbors who live at numbers 4, 5, 6, and 7 Sunnyside Street and drop in on them doing their everyday activities.  Philip the cow lives at number 7; he likes making things.  Kelly the pig likes messy play.  The Bugs like driving.  And Ian the dog likes to do lots of things (music, painting, cooking) with his little sister Baby Jade.  Everybody likes reading, of course.  At the end of the day, they all have a party at Ian's house (yeehaw!); then they go to bed.  Night-night, little neighbors!

What we like best about Little Neighbors on Sunnyside Street (besides Spanyol's flat, candy-colored pen and gouache illustrations) are "all the different stories."  Sunnyside Street itself is a little like the residential area of Richard Scarry's Busy Town.  And from a preschooler (and her mom), there is probably no higher praise than that.

Math and music (and picture books)

Leo and I went to the Kennedy Center on Sunday to see (and hear) an NSO Ensemble program for families called Connections:  MORE Math and Music (reviewed in the Washington Post today, 1/8/08).  The program was a good fit (maybe a little advanced) for Leo, who likes math and is just starting his second year of violin.

We also re-read two of our favorite picture books about music with Milly, who stayed home with her dad.  Surprise!  Both of them are also in some way about math, although I wouldn't have thought of either of them if asked to recommend a math-related picture book.

Caldecott Honor winner Zin! Zin! Zin! a Violin by Lloyd Moss, illustrated by Marjorie Priceman (Simon and Schuster, 1995) is also counting book:  it starts with a trombone playing alone (solo) and adds orchestral instruments one by one (duo, trio, etc.) until it has "a chamber group of ten."  Moss's well-written rhyming verses are perfectly attuned to the isntruments they introduce.  And Priceman's illustrations, done in gouache, contribute an energetic and colorful cast of musicians.

And in The Philharmonic Gets Dressed by Karla Kuskin, with illustrations by Marc Simont (HarperCollins, 1982), 105 members of the Philharmonic Orchestra (92 men and 13 women) get dressed for work.  Kuskin's quiet, precise text tells us how many take showers or baths (or bubblebaths); how many of the men stand up or sit down to get into their pants; etc.  I think Simont's spot illustrations of the various members of the orchestra are delightful, too.

Oh, and another thing these two books have in common:  great last lines.  But I can't quote them here, because you have to read the book first!

Three Kings Day: Federico and the Magi's Gift

Today (January 6) is Three Kings Day.  In keeping with Spanish and Latin American tradition, we always celebrate this day with a visit from los reyes magos.  The kids leave their shoes by their beds (along with a small box of sweet grass or hay for the camels), and the three kings leave them a small and special gift.  Which is as it should be:  after all, it's the kings who bring the gifts in the Christmas story, too.

There are not many picture books that tell about this tradition. One very beautiful one that does is Federico and the Magi's Gift, a Latin American Christmas story by Argentine author and illustrator Beatriz Vidal (Knopf, 2004).  The story itself is sweetly simple:  Federico is worried that the three kings won't leave him any gifts.  Vidal's exquisite watercolor and gouache illustrations (painted using a magnifying glass and very, very small brushes) are anything but.  They're magical.  I also love the tropical setting: a nice contrast to all those wintry Christmas books.  And not to worry, the Magi leave the coveted toy horse for Federico.

Perhaps they've left something for you?  Feliz Dia de los Reyes!

Poetry Friday: From the Gargoyle's Den

We spent last Saturday morning at the Gargoyle's Den, a workshop for families held every week from 10-2 in the crypt classroom of the Washington National Cathedral.  Lots of projects:  Leo and Milly loved it.  The classroom has a nice collection of cathedral-themed picture books, too.  This poem is from A Gargoyle on the Roof by children's poet laureate Jack Prelutsky; pictures by Peter Sis , whose distinguished work as an author and illustrator I admire (Greenwillow, 1999).

Mother Gargoyle's Lullaby

The moon and stars have vanished,
The long dark night is through,
Another day is dawning,
The sky is clear and blue.
The morning sun is rising,
It's climbing overhead.
My precious baby gargoyles
Should snuggle into bed.  [continues]

Other picture books about gargoyles:

god bless the gargoyles by dav pilkey (Voyager, 1999).  Look at this book for the gorgeous paintings (made with acrylics, watercolors, and India inks).  One was inspired by Edward Hopper's Nighthawks.

Night of the Gargoyles by Eve Bunting; illustrated by David Wiesner (Clarion, 1994).  Gargoyles on a museum building come to life at night in Wiesner's black-and-white charcoal drawings.

The End

We love this clever book:  The End by David La Rochelle; illustrated by Richard Egielski (Arthur A. Levine, 2007).  And we're not the only ones:  it received four starred reviews.  The droll and deadpan text (hand-lettered by Georgia Deaver) begins with "And they all lived happily ever after" and proceeds backwards until it arrives at "Once upon a time...", encountering knights, princesses, dragons, bunny rabbits, giants, and enormous tomatoes along the way.  Egielski's illustrations, done in sepia ink and watercolor, are brilliant, matching the offbeat fairy tale feel of the text, enriching and extending the story (look for the elf on the flying blue pig).  The book design by Elizabeth B. Parisi is also exceptional:  even the copyright information and title page are relocated to the back of the book.  We've read this thing forward and backward multiple times, and it still feels fresh.  The perfect read for the the end of one year--or is it the beginning of the next?  Happy new year!

[See David LaRochelle's website for a terrific teaching guide, too.]

Poetry Friday: Good King Wenceslas

Good King Wenceslas; original carol by John M. Neale; illustrated by Tim Ladwig (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2005).

"Good King Wenceslas look'd out

on the feast of Stephen,

when the snow lay round about,

deep and crisp and even."

Ladwig, working in watercolor, liquid acrylic, and oil on paper, beautifully illustrates Neale's carol about the tenth-century Bohemian king who goes out with his page to give alms to a peasant on St. Stephen's Day (the second day of Christmas, December 26).  I like Ladwig's framing device, a little boy looking at the statue of Wenceslas in Prague and "imagin[ing] a long time ago..."; the same little boy (and his dog) appears in the story as Wenceslas's page.  A "Historical Note" at the back of the book tells us that Neale wrote the carol in 1853 to inspire children to be generous on St. Stephen's Day: it's not too late!

See this article in Wikipedia for the full text of the carol and notes on its form (it was set to the melody of a thirteenth century Swedish spring song).  There is also another picture book about Wenceslas by Geraldine McCaughrean (whose work I very much like); illustrated by Christian Birmingham (Transworld, 2007); this one appears to be a prose retelling of the Wenceslas legend.

[Leo is finally interested in knights, kings, and castles, much to the delight of his medievalist mother (me); he especially liked Ladwig's warm illustrations of the castle interiors.]

New (to me) Christmas books for the basket

We have a big Christmas book basket (not to be confused with the seasonal book basket for winter) and check out lots more from the library.  Every year I like to add one or two Christmas books to the basket, the ones I'm already looking forward to reading next year.  These were my favorite "new" books this year:

A Christmas Like Helen's by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock; illustrated by Mary Azarian (Houghton-Mifflin, 2004).  "To have a Christmas like Helen's, you'll need to be born on a Vermont hill farm, before cars, or telephones, or electricity, and be the youngest of seven children."  This gorgeous book is the next best thing.  Be sure to read the author's note (she's one of Helen's 32 grandchildren).

A Clever Beatrice Christmas by Margaret Willey; illustrated by Heather M. Solomon (Atheneum, 2006).  We love Clever Beatrice.  This time Beatrice promises her friends that she will show them a bell from Pere Noel's sleigh, a button from his cape, and a curl from his beard on Christmas morning.  Perhaps Pere Noel will leave some of those things behind at our house this year, too?  We'll leave him a big piece of the buche de noel just like Beatrice and her mother did.

Santa's Littlest Helper by Anu Stohner; illustrated by Henrike Wilson (Bloomsbury USA, 2004).  For my littlest helper, who loves forest animals.  I love that Santa's helpers look...just like Santa!  Makes sense to us.  And I just noticed that there is a sequel:  Santa's Littlest Helper Travels the World (Bloomsbury USA, 2007).  All of these author-and-illustrator teams have other books I haven't yet seen yet.  It's like a Christmas present!

Are any of you adding a Christmas book to your basket this year?

Lucia and the Light

Happy Santa Lucia Day!  My own little Lucia (and her big brother Starboy) served us dinner by candlelight this evening instead of the traditional breakfast in bed, which can be a little harder to manage on a schoolday.  Later we read this lovely book, a favorite from last year:  Lucia and the Light by Phyllis Root; illustrated by Mary GrandPre (Candlewick, 2006).  Note:  The Lucia of Root's original folktale is not the same as the Italian saint or the Swedish legend.  We know; and we don't care!  This is still an appropriate book to read on Santa Lucia Day and around the time of the winter solstice (after all, in the Julian calendar December 13 was the winter solstice).

Lucia and the Light was inspired by Scandinavian mythology (and Minnesota winters).  It's about a brave girl who climbs a snowy mountain in search of the sun and, with the help of her milk-white cat, rescues it from the trolls so it can resume its rightful place in the sky.  I love the opening lines:

"Lucia and her mother and baby brother lived with a velvet brown cow and a milk-white cat in a little house at the foot of a mountain in the Far North.  The cow gave milk, the cat slept by the fire, and the baby cooed and grew fat by the hearth.  They were happy together, even when winter piled snow outside their door."

Who could resist that scene?  Not I.  I adore Phyllis Root's work, its rich and rhythmic language.  And Mary GrandPre's (yes, that Mary Grandpre's) illustrations, done in pastels, manage to be luminous even when there is no light.  Brava Lucia!

Snow, origami, and dogs

Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect came up with a list of some her favorite gift books for the December Carnival of Children's Literature (to be hosted by Big A little a).  She organized them by category:  snow, origami, puzzles and mysteries, nonfiction, and dogs; and wrote a nice precis of each one.  She also asked for readers' favorites in those categories; here are some of mine:

Snow

Grandmother Winter by Phyllis Root; pictures by Beth Krommes (Houghton Mifflin, 1999).  What happens when Grandmother Winter shakes her feather quilt?  Why, it snows, of course:  big soft feathery flakes; then all sorts of creatures (and children!) must make ready for the cold winter.  I love Phyllis Root's work; here, she was inspired by the German tales of Mother Holle.  And Beth Krommes's scratchboard-and-watercolor illustrations (this was her first picture book; she went on to illustrate Joyce Sidman's award-winning poetry collections) are both beautiful and true.

Origami

Yoko's Paper Cranes by Rosemary Wells (Hyperion, 2001).  Spare text and beautiful art (using origami and washi papers, gold leaf, rubber stamps, and paint) combine to tell a many-layered, extremely satisfying story.  Yoko moves to California, but comes up with a symbolic birthday gift to send her grandmother in Japan.  Includes diagrams for folding an origami paper crane (not the easiest thing to fold, but perhaps the most well-known).  This is also a good wintertime and holiday read, especially for children who live far from their grandparents.

Puzzles and mysteries

The Westing Game by Ellen Rankin (it won the Newbery Medal in 1979).  I still remember reading The Westing Game for the first time; it was so unlike any book I had read before (or since).  The granddaddy of the puzzle/mystery mid-grade novel.  Check out this website, The Westing Heirs; it was created by a group of fourth-graders (and their teachers).  So kids are still reading it!

Nonfiction and Dogs

Dogs and Cats by Steve Jenkins (Houghton Mifflin, 2007).  Milly loves dogs; we have a basket full of her favorite "dog books."  The usual suspects are in there:  Spot, Biscuit, Harry, McDuff; as well as a random assortment of others and a revolving door of dog library books.  This fall we added nonfiction, mostly because Steve Jenkins's cut and torn paper collage illustrations are so appealing (ahem, to me), but his text is nicely organized around questions and comparisons.  It's fair to say that the "and Cats" part of this two-sided book rarely gets read at our house, though.

Thanks again, Tricia!  Everyone (two? three?) else, please feel free to list or link to your favorites in these categories in the comments as well.

Hans Brinker

It was snowing when we went upstairs last night.  I tucked both kids (and myself) into Leo's big bed with a new picture book:  Hans Brinker, retold by Bruce Coville and illustrated by Laurel Long (Dial, 2007).  Right away there was a lot of ooh-ing and aah-ing over Long's lush, luminous paintings of snow-covered Dutch towns and landscapes.  The snow seems to sparkle (and inside, the candles glow).  Then we discovered that the story really begins on the eve of St. Nicholas...and of course, last night was the eve of St. Nicholas.  It was the perfect book for us to be reading together.

Coville does a wonderful job with this adaptation of the novel by Mary Mapes Dodge, first published in 1865 (see the Holiday High Notes from the November/December 2007 issue of The Horn Book for a review).  The story is somewhat complicated:  there is the race for the silver skates on one hand, and the situation surrounding Hans's father, who lost his memory after an accident ten years before, on the other.  Leo was intrigued by the mystery of the missing thousand guilders (and the origin of the silver watch; see, I told you it was complicated), and he was excited to learn the outcome of the race (spoiler alert: Hans does not win).  Milly might have fallen asleep, but she's only three and it was past her bedtime.  As for me, I especially liked the character of Hans, who is "strong of heart and true of purpose" (Coville, in an adaptor's note):  a good role model for my own sturdy boy (and girl).

[Happy St. Nicholas Day!  To learn more about St. Nicholas and how his day is celebrated in Holland around the world, go to the website of the St. Nicholas Center:  Discovering the Truth about Santa Claus.]