Children’s {Christmas} Book Tuesday ~ Week One

Welcome back to Children’s Book Tuesday at TheJoyfulChaos! It’s the Christmas edition for the next few weeks!

I’m sorry I was gone for two whole weeks. I’m back now and boy, do we have some catching up to do! I have quite a few Christmas books that I’ve collected over the years and only 4 weeks to fit them into, so I’m going to give you more than one a week!! Please feel free to do the same – I can’t wait to see your favorites!

The Stable Where Jesus Was Born
Written by Rhonda Gowler Greene
Illustrated by Susan Gaber

 This is the sweetest prettiest little book.  It follows the rhythm of the children’s rhyme “This is the house that Jack built.” 

I love how the book introduces you to the key characters and places of the manger scene and then loops you back around to them throughout the book.  However, the looping is not constant (like in some children’s books) that just wear you out and make you sick of it by the time it ends.  It’s done beautifully.

This is a three page sampling of the sweet rhyme.

“This is the mother, Mary by name,
the mother of Jesus she became,
who sat near the cow in the sweet-smelling hay.

This is the father, Joseph, so tall,
who cared for the baby and animals all,
but mostly the mother, Mary by name.

These are the shepherds who came in the night,
who left flocks of sheep in their hurry and flight
and wished well the father, Joseph, so tall.”

Easily read to babies, toddlers, and olders alike.  Such a quiet book.  I just love it!

This next book is my absolute favorite Christmas book.  Above all the others.  I’m showing you now, as opposed to saving the best for last so that you can run out, buy this book, and begin your December reading tradition tonight.  It’s that good.

One Wintry Night
Written by Ruth Bell Graham
Illustrated by Richard Jesse Watson

It is definitely a read aloud for children older than toddler age (only because of attention spans).  It is a fairly thin chapter book.  A couple of years ago I began our tradition of reading this aloud several nights a week leading up to Christmas. 

Ruth Bell Graham intertwines two stories beautifully.  She begins by telling us the story of a young boy who gets lost in a snow storm and cared for by an elderly lady.  We, then, see not only the Christmas story through the eyes of this child who has never before heard it, but she begins at the beginning.  The very beginning.  Because as she explains to him Christmas is a story about a Savior being born.  And obviously He came to save a people that were lost.  So she tells him how they “got lost”.

She takes him through some of the most well-known Bible stories, through the manger scene, to the cross.  And then tells him of the hope that is the true ending to the story.  Graham does this seamlessly and on a level my children understand.  Sparing nothing along the way. 

The illustrations are stunning.

I’m telling you – go buy this book.  You won’t regret it.

Now, please, tell me (and show me too, if you’d like!) what your favorite reads for this time of year are.  Have your Children’s Books post ready ~ just link back to me (so we can all share).  And then enter your name or website and your specific post URL (if you have questions about this just ask – I used to be a little confused too) in the MckLinky below.  That’s it!  Oh, that and go check out everybody else’s books – leave ‘em comments – we all love the love!