{"id":6434,"date":"2011-11-03T06:00:22","date_gmt":"2011-11-03T10:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=6434"},"modified":"2011-11-03T06:00:22","modified_gmt":"2011-11-03T10:00:22","slug":"the-holiday-books-your-family-cant-do-without","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=6434","title":{"rendered":"The Holiday Book(s) Your Family Can’t Do Without"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know it seems early to be thinking about Christmas books, but folks have been hankering for them at the store the past few weeks. So, we dutifully set up a small display (I refuse to go whole hog until the first hard frost) the other day. As I looked at the books I started thinking about my family favorites. The books we read as children and the books I read every year with my family.
\n\"\"<\/a>I think the book that we always go to is A Child’s Christmas in Wales<\/em>. My partner and I take turns reading the book aloud while one of us cooks or wraps presents. The gorgeous language captivates us each time. It’s a lovely tradition and one we try to take time for every year. \"\"<\/a>
\nThe Story of Holly and Ivy<\/em> with its glorious illustrations is a lovely picture book to share during the holidays. Every year it seems we always run out of this book about an orphan searching for family, a doll yearning for a girl, and a couple wishing for a child to share Christmas with.
\nOne of our store’s bestselling holiday picture books is also one of our favorites. Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree <\/em>tells the story of a too-tall \"\"<\/a>Christmas tree and the folks, and mice, who each get part of it as their tree. The rhyming text is great for littler kids and the illustrations are best described as jaunty and fun. This book is perfect with hot chocolate with marshmallows that are just starting to melt.
\nOne of my all-time favorites is\u00a0 How the Grinch Stole Christmas<\/em>. I think folks sometimes forget \"\"<\/a>that it was a book first, before the cartoon. The language of this Seuss classic has stayed with me my whole life – I feel like I could recite it from memory, I’ve heard it so often. A great book to read to the kids before you see the film.
\nI also love The Night Before Christmas<\/em>. One of the beauties of this book is every year at least one or two newly illustrated \"\"<\/a>versions come out, so I can add to my collection if there’s one that I particularly love. And lastly, The Tree of the Dancing Goats <\/em>is one that gets read every year with my nephews, who celebrate both Christmas and\u00a0Hanukkah. This lovely story of friendship celebrates both religious holidays in a joyful way, and, I always try to make sure that we’ve got latkes when we’re done reading.
\nReaders, please share with us what some of your family holiday reading traditions are. And while it does seem awfully early to think about holiday books, by sharing now, you’ll give some of us booksellers a little more time to get those treasures in our stores.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know it seems early to be thinking about Christmas books, but folks have been hankering for them at the store the past few weeks. So, we dutifully set up a small display (I refuse to go whole hog until the first hard frost) the other day. As I looked at the books I started thinking about my family favorites. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6434\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}