Happy Friday, everyone! It’s time for a Perfect Picture Book review and craft activity. If you head over to Susanna Leonard Hill’s blog today, you won’t find her usual picture book link up because the 4^th Annual Holiday Contest is underway…check out the scores of incredible original stories – you are in for a treat!

Today’s picture book is especially perfect for this time of year. And I’m really excited because the author, Katharine Holabird, is going to be my Will Write for Cookies guest tomorrow.

ANGELINA’S CHRISTMAS

Written by Katharine Holabird

Illustrated by Helen Craig

Publisher: American Girl (2002 – hardcover) Puffin (2008 – paperback)

Ages: 3-5+

Themes: Christmas, friendship, helping others

 

Opening Lines:

“Christmas was coming and everyone at Angelina’s school was working hard to prepare for the Christmas show. Angelina and the other children stayed after their lessons to rehearse and help decorate the hall.”

Synopsis:

From Amazon:

“When Angelina Ballerina sees the postman, old Mr. Bell, all alone at Christmastime, she decides to bring him some holiday cheer. Cousin Henry doesn’t want to help until he finds that there’s a real Santa Claus living in their town!”

 

Why I like this book:

• Great read-aloud with a wonderful message of helping others
• Sweet engaging illustrations
• A lovely story for Christmastime or anytime of year

 

How a parent can use this book:

• As a wonderful launchpad for talking about helping others
• Help your child make a card or bake some cookies for a homebound relative or neighbor – my younger son did this many years ago as part of a church school program. He was four years old and pasted so many pieces of ribbon and buttons and sequins on the card, it barely fit in the envelope. It was sent to an elderly homebound lady and several weeks later we received a lovely letter from her husband. He explained that his wife was blind and that she had been thrilled to get Peter’s card because of all the various textures she could feel on the paper. She knew how much effort the child who made it had put into it because there was not one empty space.

 

Related Activity:

Bake Holiday Cookies

Photo courtesy www.tasteofhome.com

There are many ways you can make holiday cookies…from scratch or from a boxed mix or from a roll of premade dough that you find in the refrigerator section of the grocery store. And there are tons of websites that have recipes. I love www.tasteofhome.com. Kids can help mix and measure…and decorate. Keep it simple and have fun!

Have you signed up to subscribe to my new newsletter? Please click on this link: http://eepurl.com/8pglH and grab the free one-page Anti-Bullying Toolkit Guide for Kids. My quarterly newsletter should be in your inbox the first week of January, filled with picture book recommendations, quick and easy craft projects and simple healthful child-friendly recipes plus tips for parents and teachers. As an extra added bonus, I’m giving away a copy of Show Me How to one lucky subscriber – Random.org will select the winner on December 31 and I’ll announce it in the first blog post of the new year!

COME BACK TOMORROW

WILL WRITE FOR COOKIES

WITH

KATHARINE HOLABIRD