Kidsmomo

Whether you’re lighting a Christmas tree, a menorah, or Kwanzaa candles, there’s one common thing that brings us all together this time of year… obviously, it’s fire! Er, I mean, it’s love — not to mention shared stories and traditions. So to get you in the festive spirit, our special new theme is holiday books.

So get set for two weeks of wreaths, latkes, candles, and cocoa:

• Today, we’ve got some recommended reads for the season.
• Next Wednesday (12/16), check back for a holiday Mystery Book Theater.
• And on 12/23, we’ll wrap it all up with a bow and put it under the tree — no, wait, we’ll wrap it all up with a podcast!

Are you ready? Get started with some hot cider and any of these holiday reads (in no particular order):

1. Penina Levine Is a Potato Pancake by Rebecca O’Connell (Karen’s pick)
2. The Glass Mermaid by Susan Clymer (Nancy’s pick)
3. Have a Happy . . .: A Novel about Kwanzaa by Mildred Pitts Walter
4. A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck
5. Christmas After All: The Great Depression Diary of Minnie Swift, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1932 (Dear America Series) by Kathryn Lasky
6. The Stone Lamp: Eight Stories Of Hanukkah Through History written by Karen Hesse and illustrated by Brian Pinkney
7. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
8. The Christmas Doll by Elvira Woodruff
9. How I Saved Hanukkah by Amy Goldman Koss
10. Sam I Am by Ilene Cooper
11. Kringle by Tony Abbott
12. On Christmas Eve by Ann M. Martin
13. A Very Special Kwanzaa by Deborah Chocolate
14. The Last Holiday Concert by Andrew Clements
15. The Bells of Christmas by Virginia Hamilton
16. The Jar of Fools: Eight Hanukkah Stories From Chelm by Eric A. Kimmel

If you’ve read any of these, send in your book review. Or send in a review of your favorite holiday book!

UPDATE 12/22/09: We revealed the answer to our Holiday Mystery Book Theater in the “Putting the Daze in the Holidays” Podcast, so take a listen if you want to know the answer. Or just tune in if you want to hear Karen insult Nancy a bunch of times. Always fun!