Stuff kids’ stockings with these books
Books do make great gifts, and even better memories. Here are some recommendations; head to a bookstore now or make an after-Christmas trip with your young reader.
Seasonal books
» “The Christmas Quiet Book” by Deborah Underwood (ages 4 and up, Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, $12.99). Christmas with kids is often boisterous and giddy, but there are also magical moments of stillness, and this book filled with sweet, fuzzy animals captures them all, from “searching for presents quiet” and “getting caught quiet” to “listening for sleigh bells quiet” and “trying to stay awake quiet.” Read this with your favorite child. Quietly.
» “Pete the Cat Saves Christmas” by Eric Litwin (ages 4 and up, HarperCollins, $17.99). Pete is one cool cat. When Santa falls ill right before Christmas, Pete agrees to fill in, hitching his minibus to the team of reindeer. “Then the minibus flew, just like in a movie/Pete the Cat cried, ‘This is totally groovy!’
“Although his heavy-lidded expression never changes, Pete fully embraces the theme of the book, that ‘at Christmas we give, so give it your all.’ ” You can download an MP3 of the book, with musical accompaniments, at harpercollinschildrens.com/petethecat.
» “Daddy Christmas and Hanukkah Mama” by Selina Alko (ages 5-8, Knopf Books for Young Readers, $16.99). Author and illustrator Selina Alko grew up celebrating Hanukkah; her husband celebrated Christmas. When they started a family, they integrated traditions from each, just like the happily blended family in this book. Mama scatters golden gelt under the tree while Daddy hooks candy canes on the menorah branches. And what’s sure to catch every child’s eye? “Mountains of gifts are placed under the tree for eight nights of Hanukkah, plus Christmas Day. How lucky am I?”
Picture books
» “Kate and Nate Are Running Late!” by Kate Egan (ages 4 and up, Feiwel & Friends, $16.99). In a situation that will be all too familiar to many families, Nate and his mother, Kate, and his big sister, Maddie, are running late, and tensions are running high. “‘I think we’ll make it,’ Kate tells Nate. ‘Please get dressed and brush your teeth.’/Nate’s not hearing, only playing. ‘Time to move!’ says Kate. ‘Good grief!’
“In a flurry, they scoop up homework, backpacks, coats and mittens and make it to school just in time. But where is everyone else? Oops: It’s Saturday! The rhyming text is fun to read aloud, and children will relish a story where the parent is the one who makes a mistake.
» “Cold Snap” by Eileen Spinelli (ages 5 and up, Knopf Books for Young Readers, $17.99). The town of Toby Mills is caught in the grip of a deep freeze. At first it’s fun. Kids make snow angels, go sledding and drink hot chocolate, and the Sullivan sisters knit mittens. But as the days pass and the temperature keeps dropping, marked by the lengthening icicle on the nose of the statue of town founder General Toby, people start to worry. Then the mayor has a bright idea. The watercolor illustrations are packed with detail — notice that the town’s theater is showing “Long Hot Summer” and “Little Miss Sunshine.” (If you don’t want glitter all over your house, ditch the book jacket.)
» “Alex the Parrot: No Ordinary Bird” by Stephanie Spinner (ages 8-12, Knopf Books for Young Readers, $17.99). In the 1970s, most scientists thought that because birds had fairly small brains, they couldn’t be very smart. But Irene Pepperberg, a graduate student at Purdue University, disagreed. To test her theory, she bought an African grey parrot that she named Alex — short for Avian Learning Experiment. Over the next several decades, Alex learned hundreds of words — including a favorite, “No!” He learned to add and subtract. He was so intelligent that when Irene got another African grey to train, Alex expressed his displeasure by telling the new kid, “Say better!” This true story of a real bird brain will fascinate animal lovers and budding scientists.
» “Lunch Lady and the Picture Day Peril” by Jarrett J. Krosoczka (ages 7 and up, Knopf Books for Young Readers, $6.99). Lunch Lady is back for her eighth adventure in this quick-reading comic that would make a good stocking stuffer. It’s School Picture Day at Thompson Brook School, and students are suffering an acne epidemic! But no worries: The photographer can touch up the photos for just $15 extra. Could she be causing the breakouts? Armed with gadgets like a servingspoon crowbar, Lunch Lady and her sidekick, Betty, are determined to find the proof (pun intended).
Chapter books
» “Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus,” 20th anniversary edition, by Barbara Park (ages 6 and up, Random House Books for Young Readers, $4.99). You are in for a treat if you haven’t yet met Junie B. Jones (“The B stands for Beatrice. Except I don’t like Beatrice. I just like B and that’s all”). Junie B. is almost 6, and in this reissue of her very first book, she is off to kindergarten, where she meets her teacher, Mrs. (she can’t remember the rest of it), a potential friend named Lucille and “that Jim I hate.” The other thing she doesn’t much like is the stupid smelly bus of the title. And so when it’s time to catch it home, she hides! There are 29 other Junie B. Jones books, which should fill your gift-giving needs for a long, long time.
» “Wonder” by R.J. Palacio (ages 8 and up, Knopf Books for Young Readers, $15.99). August Pullman was born with facial deformities so extreme (“I won’t describe what I look like. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse”) that he’s had 27 surgeries and has never attended a real school. But now his parents have decided to send him to Beecher Prep for fifth grade. The principal recruits three students to show him the ropes, and one of them, Jack Will, seems to be a real friend — until Auggie overhears him saying something mean. Will people ever be able to look past his appearance and see that he’s just an ordinary kid? Told in first person by alternating characters, this ultimately uplifting story will resonate with anyone who has ever been “the new kid” or felt different — or who has ever mistakenly judged someone simply by appearances.
» “Ungifted” by Gordon Korman (ages 8 and up, Balzer + Bray, $16.99). Donovan Curtis never passes up a good prank. But when he whacks his school’s statue of Atlas with a branch and the globe breaks off and rolls down a hill to smash into the gymnasium, he is in a world of trouble. Through a snafu by the superintendent, however, instead of being expelled, he’s sent to the school system’s academy for gifted students. It doesn’t take long for the teachers and the other students to realize that Donovan isn’t particularly brainy — but as he puts it, “half of being gifted was just the fact that everybody expected you to be smart.” He introduces Noah to the wonders of YouTube, takes the class robot to a new level of competition with his joystick skills and answers Chloe’s prayer to finally meet someone “normal.” But can he keep evading the superintendent, who’s hot on his trail?
» “Jump Into the Sky” by Shelley Pearsall (ages 10 and up, Knopf Books for Young Readers, $16.99). It’s May 1945, and Levi Battle’s Aunt Odella figures the war must be just about over. She breaks the news that she’s sending him from her apartment in Chicago, where he has lived for three years, to the U.S. Army base in Fayetteville, N.C., where his paratrooper father is stationed. Levi is used to impermanence; his mother, Queen Bee Walker, left when he was just a baby — her scrawled note, “I AM LEVIN,” led to his name. But joining his father — who doesn’t even know he’s coming — means heading into the Jim Crow South and facing dangers Levi has never even imagined. Readers will root for Levi as he learns the evils of segregation but also encounters the kindness of strangers.