Four Wonderful Children's Christmas Books

 I should have gotten these reviews out earlier. However, I know that the weeks before Christmas break are full of testing at school so this year it didn't happen. However, these books would be a beautiful way to begin your holiday celebrating next Christmas with your little ones. Sit back and see what  can be in store for them.

The Nativity Story Advent Calendar for Toddlers and Kids by MamTalk

A wonderful book for children ages 3-5.  It not only tells the story of the birth of Jesus, but also is full of activities that children and families can do each day leading up to Christmas day. It teaches children about gratitude and the true gift of giving of themselves. As you read it also prepares children to put on a play about the meaning of Christmas and also has masks to cut out to help with the play. This is another wonderful book from MamTalk

Nativity Story Directly from the Bible: The Birth of Jesus Christmas Book for Toddlers, Kids, Preschoolers, Little Boys and Girls

Let me start by saying that the pictures are absolutely gorgeous. I love that it is not only a retelling of the birth of Christ, but done in scripture that kids can undestand. This is the kind of story that as a child would entice me as I got older to read the story from the Bible on my own. One of a few children's books I have seen that give the actual scripture reference to children.

The Nativity: A Bible Study Book for Young Scripture Explorers by Pure Lily Press

I enjoyed this book immensely. Growing up, Every Christmas Eve started with the reading of the story from the Bible. I remember being bored when I was only 5 or 6 because I didn't really understand the story read straight from the Bible. As I got older it made sense.  This book would have been perfect. You have the top of each page straight from the scripture for older children and then the bottom of the page is a condensed  version of it complete with scripture reference for the much younger child. Just a piece of personal info, I did carry that tradition on with my own children and have had the pleasure of watching my daughter carry this on with her children. Books like these are so important and this                                                 is one of the best I have seen.

The Nativity Book by Faithful Pages Press

Another beautiful retelling of the Christmas story. In this book for children 3-8 we have the beautiful retelling of the birth of Christ. At the bottom of the pages the scripture reference. I guess the reason I really like the picture books with the scripture reference is because we can sit with our youngest and show them where we find it in our Bible. This introduces them to one of the most important books around. The pictures are simple, yet beautiful. This is another wonderful book I will recommend to parents and grandparents everywhere.

Student Saturday: The House With Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson

Student Reviewer: Jillianna H.

Genre: Middle Grade, Traditional, Fantasy

  Marinka is a red haired girl who is also what is called a yaga. A yaga is someone who is in charge of guiding the dead through The Gate. She lives with her grandma, named Baba, who is also yaga and has been raising Marinka since she was a baby. Marinka's house has chicken legs and moves to a different spot about three times a year. The house does this so that Marinka and Baba can guide the dead.  

   As a baby Marinka used to love playing with her house and helping her grandma guide the dead. But as she gets older, she realizes that she doesn’t want to be yaga or guide the dead. Marinka does everything to try to change her fate of being yaga. She tries to make human friends, which wasn’t allowed, and she even tries to make a ghost friend. All of these events lead to trouble, either for her, Baba, her friends or the house. She ends up having to make a big decision that would risk her life but maybe save another. During this I wasn’t sure whether to think she was being selfish or making the right decision for herself and her future. This is because she wants to do it because she doesn’t want to be a Yaga or guide the dead. There are a ton of risks if she decides to go through with it, and she gets told all of these risks by another yaga but doesn’t mind them and is only thinking about what would be best for her.

  I found this book very entertaining and would recommend this book to everyone who likes stories that have unexpected endings. The book definitely surprised me and kept me on my toes.                             

Student Saturday: Surviving Sharks and Other Dangerous Creatures by Allan Zullo

 

Genre:  Middle Grade, Nonfiction

Student Reviewer: Elijah S.

This book talks about ten stories about different animals attacking humans and how those humans survived those terrifying encounters. All ten chapters had different stories and different animals. These animals consisted of sharks, elephants, bears, snakes, wolves, alligators, bulls, monkeys, moose, and cougars. In the situation for the bears, the person had to punch the bear several times to get it off of him. In this situation I would’ve tried to poke the bear’s eyes because I think it would have ran away sooner. I would recommend this book to adventurous people who like to go out to woods and oceans so that they know what to do if they were in situations with these dangerous animals. In my opinion, I love this book because it's very interesting and I love animals books so if I had rate this book a one out of ten it would definitely be a ten out of ten.