Christmas Book Bonus!

Last week I posted a booktube video of three favorite Christmas books we'd been reading.


Then this week, several books I had on hold came in, so we had a new stack of Christmas books to read! Since Christmas is the season of giving, I wanted to share more of our favorites.

The Last Christmas Tree is a cute book about a scrawny tree that is constantly overlooked in favor of bigger trees. It's still in the lot on Christmas Eve, all alone...only a Christmas miracle can help the tree find a home. The illustrations in this book are gorgeous and colorful, and the story is one that we will re-read each year.

Dinosaur vs. Santa is a fun book because my stepson loves dinosaurs, and we love the character from the other Dinosaur vs. books. The text in this book is simple, which leaves the bright, bold illustrations to tell a lot of the story. It's fun for kids to see what Dinosaur does in each picture to help move the story along.

The Gingerbread Pirates is about a boy and his mother who are making cookies for Santa. They make gingerbread men, but decide to decorate them as pirates - including a toothpick as a peg leg! After the boy goes to sleep, the gingerbread men come to life and try to avoid being eaten by Santa. The cookie illustrations in this book are really cute, and the story is sweet - no pun intended! I especially like this book because I reviewed another pirate Christmas book in my video: A Pirate's Night Before Christmas.

Little Robin's Christmas is another book we'll be reading each year. The animals are adorable, especially round Little Robin, who has seven sweater vests to wear the week before Christmas. When Little Robin goes out, he finds animals that seem to need a vest more than he does, so he keeps giving them away. The ending is really sweet and helps remind children that this is the season of giving, and that it's important to be kind.

I hope you enjoy reading these Christmas books as much as we have. Merry Christmas!

Read them for yourself!
Krensky, Stephen. The Last Christmas Tree. Illus. Pascal Campion. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 2014. Print.
Shea, Bob. Dinosaur vs. Santa. New York: Disney Hyperion Books, 2012. Print.
Kladstrup, Kristin. The Gingerbread Pirates. Illus. Matt Tavares. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press, 2009. Print.
Fearnley, Jan. Little Robin's Christmas. Waukesha, WI: Little Tiger Press, 1998. Print.

Favorite Young Adult Books of 2015

For favorite picture books, I recommended only books that were published this year. For favorite young adult books, I'm highlighting my five favorites, but... none of these books were published in 2015. None. I read books that were published this year, but I read a lot of books this year, so I decided to go with my gut and post raves about my favorites, with no publishing constraints. (Next year, I vow to be more timely with my reading list so I can pull exclusively from 2016 books. Funnily, this list has 4 books that were published in 2014, and one in 2013, so I'm not TOO dated.)


El Deafo is a graphic memoir by Cece Bell. In really cute, bright illustrations, she tells the story of how she had to get hearing aids at a young age, and how she coped with being different from everyone else. I love graphic memoirs and Bell has a great style.

I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson is about twins who used to be best friends. Their mother wants them to attend a fancy art school, and when one twin is admitted and one isn't, it starts tearing them apart. The book is told in alternating chapters from each twin's point of view, across the span of three years. It's hard to summarize without giving the good stuff away, so let's just say there's a reason this book is an award-winner! I read and reviewed this for a class, and loved it so much I created a book trailer for it!

Girls Like Us is an amazing and emotional story about two teen girls with disabilities who graduate from high school and become roommates. They live with an old lady on the condition that they help her around the house. This book is so real and honest, and so moving. It was so good that I already want to re-read it; I think it'll stay on my list of all-time favorites.

Good Kings Bad Kings is another book with characters who have disabilities. The story is told from different points of view of teens living in the institution, as well as employees who work there. It's an interesting story, but due to the institutional setting, it's especially effective as a way to bring about change.

Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek is a memoir by Maya Van Wagenen, a girl who found an old popularity guide and decided to implement it in her modern middle school life. Her writing is easy to read, with touches of humor and emotion. I've previously reviewed this book on the blog after I read it for a class. I loved it so much, I even developed an "If You Liked..." display based off of it, so you can check out some of those book suggestions as well!

Read them for yourself!
Bell, Cece. El Deafo. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2014. Print.
Nelson, Jandy. I’ll Give You the Sun. New York: Dial Books, 2014. Print.
Giles, Gail. Girls Like Us. Somerville, MA: Candlewick, 2014. Print.
Nussbaum, Susan. Good Kings Bad Kings. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books, 2013. Print.
Van Wagenen, Maya. Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek. New York: Dutton Books,
     2014. Print.