Picture Books
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 15th: Jo Clarke chooses Jesus’ Christmas Party
The Story: ThJesus’ Christmas Party is is a hilarious retelling of the Nativity story told from the point of view of the Innkeeper. There was nothing the innkeeper liked more than a good night’s sleep but he keeps getting disturbed by constant knocks on the door. From shepherds, to kings, bright stars and angels a very…
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 11th: ReaditDaddy & Charlotte choose The Polar Express
The Story: A young boy who is fairly disillusioned by the upcoming yuletide season boards a mysterious train that magically appears outside his house one snowy night. Thus begins an amazing journey as the train is destined for the North Pole – and to Santa’s home! There, one special child will receive the first gift…
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…
Dec 8th: Mat Tobin chooses Father Christmas
The Story: It’s Christmas Eve and for many of us this means going to bed positively brimming with nervous excitement about what tomorrow will bring. Have we been good this year? I hope so since there’s a new copy of Jansson’s The Moomins and the Great Flood that I am hoping to unwrap on Christmas…
