Authors / Illustrators
Dec 21st: Guy Parker-Rees chooses Happy Christmas Maisy
The Story: Happy Christmas Maisy is really not about the plot! Maisy does Christmassy things: buying and wrapping presents, baking, putting up decorations and stockings. Then there’s a knock at the door…
Dec 19th: Polly Faber chooses Lucy & Tom at Christmas
The Story: Lucy & Tom at Christmas is a simple account of the preparations for a family Christmas and the day itself, told with Hughes’ characteristic warmth and eye for detail. It recalls much of my own childhood experience of the day and captures the essence of what I would love my own children to…
Dec 18th: Colin West chooses Once in Royal David’s City
I’m choosing a real oldie as my favourite, Once in Royal David’s City, published in 1956, it’s almost as old as me!
Dec 17th: Jane Hissey chooses Jingle Bells
The Story: Jingle Bells is the story of two little mice who live in a barn and are having trouble with the farm cat. He creeps up on them, eats their store of Christmas food and tricks Father Christmas into not leaving them any presents. Something has to be done! With the help of a friend…
Dec 16th: Tom Percival chooses Once Upon a Northern Night
The Story: Put simply Once Upon a Northern Night is a story about the magic and wonder of seeing the ordinary, familiar world transformed by a snowfall.
Dec 14th: Kristina Stephenson chooses The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey
The Story: A sad, lonely and bitter woodcarver, known by the local children as ‘Mr Gloomy’, gruffly agrees to carve a set of nativity figures for the widow McDowell and her young son Thomas, in time for Christmas Day. As the ill-tempered wood carver works he is watched closely by the inquisitive boy, who makes greater…
Dec 13th: Clare Helen Welsh chooses Red Sledge
The Story: Red Sledge, an almost wordless picture book, captures wintertime perfectly. When a well- loved sledge is left outside a cosy cabin on a still winter’s night, an unlikely cast of creatures forge new friendships during the ride of their lives.
Dec 12th: Caryl Hart chooses The Christmas Bear
The Story: The Christmas Bear is the adorable story of a little polar bear who falls down a snowy hole, down down down into Father Christmas’s workshop. Father Christmas welcomes him with open arms and shows him around. Little Bear even gets to test the toys and has a ride on Father Christmas’s sleigh. Why…
Dec 10th: Amy Sparkes chooses One Winter’s Night
The Story: One winter’s night, a badger arrives in the forest, cold and hungry. There is little food in the harsh wintertime, but something special about the kind, gentle badger moves Fox, Mouse and Hare. They each help as best they can, and Badger goes on his way. But the storms are getting worse and the…
Dec 9th: Clara Vulliamy chooses Lucy & Tom at Christmas
The Story: In Lucy & Tom at Christmas two small children prepare for a traditional family Christmas. The story begins with them stirring the pudding, and ends with them seen through the window on the evening of Christmas Day, their home all lit up and shining out into the darkness, beneath a message for us…
