Festivals Books

I echo the review from "A Customer".
In addition...
I'm a preschool teacher and the kids definitely understood the story. It's a great addition to a multi-cultural program and can open up conversation about culture.
As for the book, I enjoyed the illustrations!

I bought this book for my three year old daughter. She absolutely loved the story. Now when she plays in her kitchen she makes me homemade tamales. :-)

Our family loves this book! We checked it out from our local library and soon it was my four year old daughter's favorite. When December rolled around, I checked it out again, bought tamale makings and my four year old and I made cheese tamales. We took them to her pre-school class for snack along with the book. Her teacher read the book to the class and then they all had the tamales that my daughter and I made. It was a huge hit!! Now that she is in kindergarten, we will do it again (I am buying the book since I have two girls and I think this tradition will go on for a while!). Tamales are a really kid friendly activity and it was a great experience for both of us. You should try it!

I love this story because it brings back memories of when my family would get together at Christmas time to make the annual batch of tamales. Everyone was involved and when all the work was done, we couldn't wait until they were ready to eat. The story is well told and my students look forward to hearing the story year after year.

My class of second and third graders really enjoyed this book. Many of them make tamales at home every year. They enjoyed reading about someone else that shares the same traditions. It opened up a lot of discussion about telling the truth. The only problem was all the talk about tamales made them hungry!

This is another book I purchased to use with my elementary students. What an absolutely delightful story! Any book that so wonderfully illustrates respect of many different beliefs gets high marks from me.....and this book does just that. Through this delightful story the reader learns of Christmas and Hanukkah traditions AND that they can compliment each other very nicely. I also think the story is a great example of service and being a great neighbor.

My teacher does an "author study" program and our first featured author was Patricia Polacco. My teacher read some of her books to my class and during reading I would read them to myself. I read this book and it was one of my favorites. We bought it and I love it. I recommend this book for anyone who loves to read! The author writes about the time when she was a young child and a lot of her neighbors got scarlet fever. The girl and her family is Jewish, and since they are not sick, the girl, her older brother, her mom, her babushka, and her grandpa go out and chop down trees and decorate them with colorful animal figures. I won't tell you the surprise ending, but this book is awesome! I recommend this book highly.

A few years ago I was lucky enough to overhear our school librarian recommend this book to another parent at the school book fair. There was only one copy left so I took it.

Now, each December I get out our family's box of holiday books and this is the first one we read. My youngest child handed me a tissue before I started reading it last December! She knows how this book touches my heart and warms my soul.

I have given this book to family and friends ... young and old. Great book to spread the message of what is really important -- at the holidays especially.

Trees of the Dancing Goats is a beautiful, poignant story and one of my all time favorites. Grown-ups love it as much as the kids. If you don't have this one on your bookshelf, you should get it! If you've been good, maybe Santa Claus will drop a copy in your stocking this year!

Drawing upon her own family's experience, Patricia Polacco shares a story of true holiday giving. Her Russian grandparents teach the meaning of friendship and miracles as they relate the story of Hanukkah and as they reach out to their Christian neighbors who are suffering from a deadly epidemic of scarlet fever. They adapt the symbols of their Jewish celebration to bring Christmas to those who are too ill to create their own festivities. Polacco's colorful illustrations capture the warmth and spirit of the characters and do much to enhance this wonderful story.

This is the first Karen Katz book my daughter has seen...it was given to her by her Aunt for Halloween this year. And although she is only 8 1/2 months old, she absolutely loves this book because of the flaps that open and close. It's the only "toy" I take to church with us and it keeps her amused the entire time. (Although, she does like to screach when she gets excited, so sometimes it's a little embarassing).

Just to add to the chorus of praises, if you have a toddler you really should buy this book. Our 14-month old loved it from the moment she opened the cover, and she has continued to come back to it as a favorite in the weeks since. The flaps are big and sturdy so she can get ahold of them herself, and she loves the different pictures and textures. From my perspective, the illustrations are charming and really capture the excitement of halloween for a small child, so I like looking through it too. Brava to Karen Katz for a wonderful book!

She doesn't get everything there is to enjoy about this book yet, but I've read this with my 7 week old daughter twice and both times she smiled through the whole thing. Must be all the sparkles and glitter!

We were quite surprised when we got this book - how beautiful and interesting the illustrations are! There are lots of tactical additions - black glitter on the baby's cat costume, etc. Very cute!

This was a big hit with my 21-month-old son! He has a number of other Karen Katz books, and always enjoys looking behind the panels. This particular book also has textures (like the fuzzy cat costume) that help to keep my son interested and engaged. A very fun book that we read every night for a week or so after we bought it. Now it's an occasional request, but he still really enjoys it. A fun Halloween book!

"...Christmas is such a special time that very special, almost magical things can happen. And the most magical thing of all is Santa Bear: I'd say he has the best job in the whole world, because the joy of giving is what Christmas is all about." -- From the book

This lovely book by Stan and Jan Berenstain follows the Bear family as they navigate through the trappings of Christmas: making lists, feeling the tug of store-front windows loaded with toys, kids worrying if they've been good enough to merit Santa Bear's visit, the spirit of giving and more.

I love that this book doesn't demonize wanting things (like The Berenstain Bears Get the Gimmies), and shows kids deciding to spend their own money to buy their parents special gifts from Christmas.

One adorable scene in this book is when the kids encounter a bell ringing Santa outside the mall, standing in front of a pot that says "Help the Needy". Paper Bear explains "His job is to collect money to help the needy--birds who need seed, squirrels who didn't put enough aside for the winter".

Especially good for Christmastime, The Berenstain Bears Meet Santa Bear is a heartwarming story with an uplifting message that children will no doubt enjoy.

This is such a cute book! This one has the Bear family going to the mall two days after Thanksgiving and finding that it's all decorated for Christmas. Mama thinks it's too early, but Papa thinks that the kids will be fine and they will be able to handle it. Then the next page shows the cubs jumping up and down in front of the toy store way too excited for the season to begin. Sister has a ton of questions about Santa, like how does he get down our skinny chimney, how does he drive his sleigh when there's no snow, etc., etc. Just the same questions just about every child has at one time or another. It also goes through how hard it is to wait until Christmas Eve and all the things a kid goes through waiting for that wonderful event. Lastly, it shows the cubs buying thoughtful gifts for their parents and being very excited when they open them on Christmas. The book closes with Papa explaining all of Sister's questions on Christmas Eve while they are looking up into the sky, waiting for Santa Bear to come. Then, it starts to snow and blankets the entire town with Christmas snow.

This is such a great little book - it shows all the joys of Christmas through a child's eyes but also teaches about giving. When Sister says that Santa Bear has the hardest job in the world making all those presents and then delivering them, Papa counters with the fact that he thinks that Santa Bear has the best job because he gets to give all those gifts to so many cubs. That's the last sentence in the book too - when the cubs give their gifts to their parents, they realize that Papa was right - Santa Bear did have the best job in the whole world because it feels better to give than to receive.

We LOVE this book in our house and I just can't recommend it enough!

I got this book as a christmas present in 1990 and really enjoyed it. All the toys looked exciting to me and I really loved the illustrations.

I gave this book four stars because it is a great book for children dealing with questions about Santa Claus. Papa Bear answers all these questions with a simple answer, "Christmas is such a special time of year that very special, almost magical things can happen. And the most magical thing of all is Santa Bear."

This book is about how the cubs start wanting their presents for Christmas. Brother bear wants just a couple of things and makes a small Christmas list, while sister bear makes a really long one. Sister gets thiknking and she realizes she's being greedy.

I reccomend this book to any child who is havinbg a want problem. The point of this story is don't be greedy. This is for children 5-8 yrs. of age.

This book is hilarious. I bought it when a fairly generous employer gave me purchasing power at the wonderful Sam Weller's Book Store in SLC; I said I wanted to do book reviews as the books and readings editor for an online pub, but really I just needed books for my daughter and couldn't afford any.

I was surprised and pleased to see I liked it as much as my daughter, though I found I had much to explain as she watch me laugh till I cried. I could see this book being used in an adult western civ class...a person could read all kinds of things into it...about cultural appropriation, about egocentrism, about colonialism... I have two daughters now, and both absolutely love it, but sometimes I read it for myself and to other adults after the girls have gone to bed. The illustrations, by the way, are fantastic. If I were to suggest one Christmas book for kids, this would definitely be it. This is the one Christmas book I don't put away in January, but keep around all year.

This is a funny, quirky story about a girl who finds a crocodile under the Christmas tree. The illustrations are watercolors of a Victorian mansion, the characters are fun (most of them are sterotypes but funny to read in different voices) and the story is just very original. Children will enjoy the idea of a crocodile and it's antics, while adults will get the jokes that are probably over most kids' heads...including the last illustration without any words that ends the book with a last laugh. I would definetly reccomend this one!

My kids and I all love this book! The text and the illustrations perfectly complement each other, giving the story an old-fashioned feel and lots of humor. The quirky family members are a treasure. I highly recommend this fun story!

Crocodiles do not conjure up images of a well-behaved pet! Alice Jayne sure tries to convince her eccentric family to keep a "puppy eyed" crocodile she finds under the Christmas tree. Our sympathy immediately goes out to the Christmas Crocodile who really "didn't mean to be bad." He sure gets into trouble in this book.

From page one, get ready to laugh at the adorable antics and pictures of less than amused family members. If the "Cat in the Hat" had been found under the Christmas tree, even he could not have created this much chaos! After gobbling down just about everything (a water bottle, candy canes, a Christmas roast, pumpkin pie, twenty-nine crumpets on the kitchen counter, a box of pralines, one fruitcake, five golden oranges, the left stove top burner, and a plate of ginger star cookies), the family locks the crocodile in the back room. They then retire for the evening.

What happens next can only be told by Bonny Becker and illustrated by David Small. We have copy which says: "For Alexia, Season's eatings!" signed by Bonny Becker! This is a magical book from start to finish. You don't want all this fun to ever end...and you know...it might just being again. Don't peak at the last page! This is the perfect gift for any child at Christmas time. They will enjoy reading it all year long.

~The Rebecca Review

Start a new holiday tradition by reading the Christmas Crocodile with your family. You'll laugh at the crazy antics of the eccentric family members and the crocodile who "didn't mean to be bad." This book is a winner from beginning to end and the illustrations capture the hilarity perfectly!

I found this book on the back of an old bookshelf full of some old books. I saw that it was in good condition and had a beautiful cover.
The SECOND I read the first page, I couldn't put it down. I love this book and read it like crazy. Now my dad got it for me off the internet somewhere. It will come in the mail soon and it will be mine. Some parts, such as the line Glory says: "Merry Christmas, Charolette. And Merry Christmas, Morning Glory, wherever you are." made me cry! I love this book and I'm counting down the days until it arrives!

A child's book that an adult can enjoy is a wonderful book indeed.
This one is wonderful!

IT WAS THE BEST I MEAN TOPS I EVEN CRIED SOME IT IS A TOUCHING SWEET STORY YOUR KIDS WILL LOVE IT TO I AM SURE PLEASE READ IT IT IS WORTH IT IT IS A VERY EDIFIYING AND TOUCHING STORY IT LOOKS BORING BUT IT REALLY IS NOT IT IS THE TOP OF TOPS BOOKS

This book I really liked. I had this book for a very long time, but never really got to read it. I started it one day and I couldn't stop. I finished it within two days. Glory and Lucy Wollcot are sisters living in the workhouse (The home for little orphan girls)in London Town.Their meal are scarce their nights are dark and cold and they hear many terrible storys of little girls who escape then get caught. To brighten up their spirits, Lucy "creates" storys of their family that she barley rembers- and a doll named Morning Glory that they are sure they will find again some day. When a deadly fever comes accross the workhouse, the girls escape without getting caught to the terrible streets of London. When the sisters find an old, discarded doll, Glory is positive that it is Morning Glory. Morning Glory is different from other dolls... And she works her magic on every body!

The Christmas Doll is a children's story about two orphan girls who live and work in a workhouse in Dickensian England. Life is hard for the girls who are constantly cold and hungry. When some of the children in the factory become sick, Sara (the eldest), fears for her younger sister Glory. The two girls run away and have many frightening and exciting adventures on the streets of London, before finding a place they truly belong.

I listened to the audio edition of this novel and really enjoyed it. Sarah and Glory are two strong-minded powerful little girls, whose friendship and loving hearts endure many terrible tragedies. Wonderful. 5 stars. Suitable for all ages. Sensitive really young children should read with a parent.

A touching Christmas story for all ages. It's a wonderful read-aloud for my grandchildren which lends to discussions of Christmas. The beautiful illustrations also by Patricia Polacco add to the story. A story that captures your heart and gives meaning once again to love, faith, and the true meaning of the Christmas season. This is a definite Christmas favorite.

Although I read this story to my students every year, I can never get through it without choking up. Elementary through high school, all students are deeply touched by this tale. The timeless message of love portrayed by all the characters in this book is one you will never forget. It's a wonderful read-aloud, and a useful segue into discussions about the true meaning of Christmas and Hannukah.

This story is a wonderful story anytime of year. This may be my all time favorite Patricia Polacco story. It will touch your heart and leave you with a feeling of optimism and joy.

This is a very special Christmas story. It is timeless in it's message of hope and caring. It will be a story to read every Christimas with your family.

Christmas Tapestry will warm the cockles of your heart, soul, and mind. I'm not sure if it's based on a true story or not, but it sure could be. It appealed to me, as a Christian, (as it would to a Jewish person) because it shows that God is in control, and He works out His purposes, even when we don't understand what's going on.

If you like these heart-tuggers, also try The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey.

This book was really inspiring it teaches you that you can do things if you really set your mind into it and if you gives you some poems that teaches you about anything. This book was about that the the library was closing down and Willa was very surprised she loved that library so much. So then she told everyone to raise enough money to save the library so she ended up making dances with the help of her best friend Tina of course. JFK the boy willa likes also supported her and lets see how things end up with those two. It was really romantic and it also mention some parts of the first book " The Wedding Planners Daughter" i really recommend this to everyone and really you'll love it and just to warn you that once you read this book you just cant stop reading!

Willa is back and just entering her freshman year of high school. Things are going great. Her mom and her new husband, Willa's old English teacher, are happily running a Bed and Breakfast of sorts, and things have relaxed a bit.

But Willa has two new problems now - figuring out whether JFK loves her or some other girl, and keeping the Bramble Library from closing due to lack of funds. Working as the school's Community Service leader and hosting semi-romantic dances may just help Willa save the library -- and find some romance for herself.

Following in the footsteps of the first book in the series, THE WEDDING PLANNER'S DAUGHTER, THE CUPID CHRONICLES includes the perfect amount of humor to make a laugh-out-loud funny book, without overdoing it. The writing style keeps the reader intrigued throughout the entire story, and the characters are so easy to relate to that you feel as if you're really inside their heads.

This is by far my favorite tween series and I'd recommend it to everyone, no matter what their age. I think this series may even be a good read for 7th- or 8th-graders to read in class. I can't wait to read the third book of the series, WILLA BY HEART, and hope you decide to, as well.

Reviewed by: Harmony

Willafred Havisham is not your everyday Bramble, Cape Cod kind-of girl. She's the girl that sits in the corner and reads, rather than joining the party. But in the The Cupid Chronicles, Willafred, also known as Willa, steps out of the box and speaks up.Willa and her best friend Tina are enjoying their wonderful life in Bramble. But when Willa hears the news that the Bramble Board is closing the local library, Willa looks for ways to stop them. But with things getting in her way, like her cutie crush Joey(also known to Willa as JFK) who kissed her, then moved away. Well he moves back and is excited to see Willa again. Can she fight to save the library and fight against cupid for the chance at love with JFK? You will just have to read the book to find out!

Willafred Havisham is not your everyday Bramble, Cape Cod kind-of girl. She's the girl that sits in the corner and reads, rather than joining the party. But in the The Cupid Chronicles, Willafred, also known as Willa, steps out of the box and speaks up.Willa and her best friend Tina are enjoying their wonderful life in Bramble. But when Willa hears the news that the Bramble Board is closing the local library, Willa looks for ways to stop them. But with things getting in her way, like her cutie crush Joey(also known to Willa as JFK) who kissed her, then moved away. Well he moves back and is excited to see Willa again. Can she fight to save the library and fight against cupid for the chance at love with JFK? You will just have to read the book to find out!

Willafred Havisham is not your everyday Bramble, Cape Cod kind-of girl. She's the girl that sits in the corner and reads, rather than joining the party. But in the The Cupid Chronicles, Willafred, also known as Willa, steps out of the box and speaks up.Willa and her best friend Tina are enjoying their wonderful life in Bramble. But when Willa hears the news that the Bramble Board is closing the local library, Willa looks for ways to stop them. But with things getting in her way, like her cutie crush Joey(also known to Willa as JFK) who kissed her, then moved away. Well he moves back and is excited to see Willa again. Can she fight to save the library and fight against cupid for the chance at love with JFK? You will just have to read the book to find out!

Heart breaking story of homelessness during the Christmas season with a miracle to boot. Diaz' usual fabulous artwork works well with Bunting's deft story tellings of social issues, especially here.

Very moving, very powerful discussion point with kids grades 1-4. Highly reccommend for story or book discussion groups.

December is a remarkable book -- it manages to connect homelessness to the realm of miracles and the mystery of Christmas. As a reading teacher, I've had the pleasure of meeting Eve Bunting and sharing her stories with hundreds of children. The younger set don't always understand the implications of the old lady who visits on Christmas Eve, but they are deeply touched by the generosity of a mother and child who are willing to share a cookie, a precious coat and the box over their head. The story has something of the aura of O'Henry's Gift of the Magi. December is a pleasure to read and a treasure to share.

I had to read it twice to have the story really sink in. This book is very moving and quiet. A really great job from Eve Bunting and a book to be remembered.

Eve Bunting has teamed up again with David Diaz (illustrator) to create what will surely become a holiday classic. Is the feeble old lady who visits the mother and her son who live in a cardboard box really an angel? This story conveys, in an understated yet very accessible manner, the importance of finding spiritual meaning in the most humble of human experiences. This is a wonderful message of hope and the importance of recognizing, and extending ourselves to, those in need.

Good DVD about what takes place in Burning Man. If you have never been there (which I have not) but plane to go. This DVD lets you know what you are in for.

Based on the images of Holly Kreuter, Drama In The Desert: The Sights And Sounds Of Burning Man is a book and DVD set collecting full-color visuals and personal memories drawn from the harsh desert of Black Rock City, Nevada. Capturing the sometimes quizzical, sometimes cruel, sometimes dramatic art and documentary efforts of seventy contributors, Drama In The Desert is strongly recommended as an eclectic, unique, and vibrant experience impressing its fiery artistic message upon the reader's spirit.

Kreuter's photography really captures the diversity, creativity and 'out of the box' off the wall craziness of Burning Man. The CD is first class too.

This book will take you back to Burning Man but it's the DVD that I want to rave about. Watch it over and over. Beautifully done. A wonderful effort. Thanks to Holly and thanks to Bam Bam!

My husband and I starting our Burning Man experience in 1997 and have gone every year since. We've had 4 different theme camps alone or in collaboration with friends. We will have to miss the 2005 burn, as we will be relocating, so we bought books and DVD's to remember the fun times until we can come home again. Holly's book is wonderful and the DVD is sooo much better than anything else out there. It really just blew me away! We popped it into the DVD player one morning and were mesmerized and drawn in by the music, the images, the clouds and the incredible artistry of the whole production-it brings back the feeling of being there. I appreciate that she separated the interviews from the flow of images in the main movie.

A must have for anyone interested in Burning Man!