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knowloveserve
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My boys all like the typical Christmas stories which inevitably include some sort of heart-wrenching emotional climax. I am not berating those; I have close to 30 Christmas season picture books in my home, and most of them are of this sort.
But I like to shake things up a little. And so do my boys. We need something with some action, adventure, light-heartedness or comedy. Seems there are precious few Christmas books in this category which could simultaneously be considered EXCELLENT books (plenty of dopey, cartoony nonsense books in this category however).
Can you think of any titles which really show off the lighter or more exciting side of Christmas? Titles to intermix with the heavier dramas?
In my collection, the only ones which sort of fit this bill are:
The Polar Express
Merry Christmas, Strega Nona
Christmas Trolls
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
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JennGM
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I don't know too many. I have boys, and I find they like "interactive" books -- ones that incorporate them. Our favorites are ones that incorporate Christmas carols, so we can sing them together out loud. And then the pop-up books, beautiful and fun ones we use all the time.
Just going on the journey with all the different versions of Twas the Night Before Christmas is a lot of fun, and then the boys will be reciting them with you.
Christmas in Noisy Village
The other Strega Nona books, like de Paola's new one Strega Nona's Gift.
We like to follow the story of Cranberry books by Devlin, so Cranberry Christmas.
The Mousekin series MaryM has posted about before, and we're now discovering them and LOVING them.
Most of the St. Nicholas stories are action packed and captivating for boys.
That's what comes to mind now. I have so many Christmas books that I start to weed out what isn't attracting my boys. But they love hearing the Christmas story over and over again. They love the various illustrations and beautiful books.
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JodieLyn
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Have you seen the Advent storybooks that are set up to read a bit each day of Advent? Like Jotham's Journey. There's also two others "Bartholomew's Passage" and "Tabitha's Travels" (they'll be linked on the first one)
Anyway they are very full of adventure and danger and action.. enough you may want to preread.
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jawgee
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JodieLyn wrote:
Have you seen the Advent storybooks that are set up to read a bit each day of Advent? Like Jotham's Journey. There's also two others "Bartholomew's Passage" and "Tabitha's Travels" (they'll be linked on the first one)
Anyway they are very full of adventure and danger and action.. enough you may want to preread. |
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Another great one is Destination: Bethlehem. It's a story of two boys (each around age 10) who travel to Bethlehem with their families for the census. They meet up with Mary and Joseph while in Bethlehem. I read it last week before choosing this as our Advent read-aloud.
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JennGM
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And Letters to Father Christmas. A great one for boys. And the Babar book on Father Christmas...
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DominaCaeli
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JennGM wrote:
| I don't know too many. I have boys, and I find they like "interactive" books -- ones that incorporate them. Our favorites are ones that incorporate Christmas carols, so we can sing them together out loud. |
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Just wanted to echo this--my sons (well, and my daughters!) love the ones we can sing along to, and it's a nice break from the more emotional options. 
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SeaStar
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Too Many Tamales
Is a favorite here. The main character is a girl, but the story is a hoot.
It makes me smile every time I read it... my kids, too. Thinking of eating all those tamales- too funny. And on top of that you *know* your own kids could easily get in to a scrape like that.
(Plus I love how the mother handles it all with such good grace  )
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JennGM
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Although about knitting, I think this is a great yarn
Shall I Knit You a Hat?: A Christmas Yarn
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MaryM
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Ellie, you don't consider the grinch's heart growing three sizes that day as "heart-wrenching emotional climax"?
  
Hmm...hope I'm on the right track for what you are looking for. At the top of my list would be Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree by Robert Barry. Very funny and light-hearted. I only recently discovered this one although it is an older book. Reprinted in 2000. Original here.
Jenn, mentioned the Twas the Night Before Christmas books. Have been trying to collect different versions. It's fun to compare and contrast the illustrators approaches to the work. And speaking of Night Before Christmas - there are lots of "parody" versions out there. Those can be enjoyable, though I'm not really that taken with the series of NBC parodies. I've read some independent ones we enjoyed more.
And speaking of parodies, 12 Days of Christmas has a few. One we really enjoy is the Three French Hens by Margie Palatini - hysterical.
A Christmas Tree in the White House by Gary Hines. I'd say sneaking a christmas tree into the White House is pretty adventuresome. Those Roosevelt boys were known for their mischief.
And there are still some books that have a bit of that "heart-wrenching emotional climax" but aren't sweet and sentimental in the way I think you might be referring to the bulk of the books. A little more adventure or humor or edge...
Angela and the Baby Jesus by Frank McCourt - seems to fit this category for me, a little mischievous and it really makes me smile in that 'kids do the darnest things" way.
Cobweb Christmas by Shirley Climo. There is another version of this by same author but different illustrator. Text is different between the two. Both good but I really prefer the earlier one. Has a little of that emotional climax, but a more adventurous book and full of spiders - great for boys.
While looking for the link for this book, The Christmas tree Ship by Jeanette Winter. I found this newly published one by the same name - The Christmas Tree Ship by Carol Crane. I had seen it in an Amazon Christmas search a few weeks ago as well. I think it sounds like it could be of the genre you are looking for - adventure. They both tell the same general story about Captain Herman E. Schuenemann and the Schooner Rouse Simmons ("The Christmas Tree Ship") on Lake Michigan. I loved Winter's book on the topic and just requested that our library get this newest book from Sleeping Bear Press.
Adding my thumbs up to these:
Mousekin's Christmas Eve 
Too Many Tamales
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JennGM
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MaryM wrote:
A Christmas Tree in the White House by Gary Hines. I'd say sneaking a christmas tree into the White House is pretty adventuresome. Those Roosevelt boys were known for their mischief.
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Oh yes!!! Thanks for the reminder, Mary! My boys loved this one!
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SuzanneG
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Not all nec. "light" but more boy-oriented....
The Christmas Tree Ship that Mary mentioned is really good! Very manly and a great story!
How about Christmas Tree Coat (fighting boys) and Christmas in the Trenches (war).
Stephen's Feast, Good King Wenceslas and The Christmas Knight -- medieval knights and kings
Mortimer's Christmas Manger---> we give this to all our friends with little boys and they all LOVE it!
Christmas Day in the Morning--> heart-wrenching, but lots of "farm, boys, hard work"
Snowmen at Christmas
The Christmas Tomten
Jan Brett - Wild Christmas Reindeer and Christmas Trolls...all her Christmas books!
Lindgren's The Tomten
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JennGM
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SuzanneG wrote:
Not all nec. "light" but more boy-oriented....
The Christmas Tree Ship that Mary mentioned is really good! Very manly and a great story!
How about Christmas Tree Coat (fighting boys) and Christmas in the Trenches (war). |
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Rats, my library doesn't have these.
SuzanneG wrote:
| Stephen's Feast, Good King Wenceslas and The Christmas Knight -- medieval knights and kings |
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Yes! I was going to mention those, too! They are such favorites.
SuzanneG wrote:
| Christmas Day in the Morning--> heart-wrenching, but lots of "farm, boys, hard work" |
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I just love this one. It ranks one of my highest Christmas stories.
Great suggestions.
I was also going to mention all the books on the animals or from the animals' perspective are appealing to the boys.
Through the animals' eyes : a story of the first Christmas by Christopher Wormell
The Friendly Beasts by Tomie de Paola
Who is Coming to Our House? (absolute favorite)
And then different depictions are appealing:
The Huron Carol both versions have the Indian depictions which are wonderfully appealing.
Spirit Child retells Nativity from Aztec manuscripts.
Jan Brett hasn't been a super winner in our house. Tomtens and some of the other creatures are a bit frightening, and my boys don't like the messes that occur in some stories.
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MaryM
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SuzanneG wrote:
| Christmas in the Trenches (war). |
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Oh, yes, that is the other one I wanted to mention, but forgot. It's about the Christmas Truce of Dec. 24, 1914 (WWI)
Christmas in the Trenches link
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SuzanneG
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Can you tell I am in TOTAL BOY MODE over here!!!!????? I practically JUMPED over 3 baskets of laundry to answer this post!  I am SO DONE with dolls  and clothing  "families" and all-things-pink  .....I am MOVING ON, PEOPLE.....MOVING ON!  Bring on the manly, the stories of soldiers, the crazy boys swinging from the chandeliers !
Which reminds me.....I"m off to update my BOY TOY THREAD!
 carry on........
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CrunchyMom
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JennGM wrote:
| and my boys don't like the messes that occur in some stories. |
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This bothered my boys as well!
Speaking of singing books, though, they LOVE Jan Brett's Twelve Days of Christmas.
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Here's a few to add from our basket my boys enjoy:
The Little Drummer Mouse by Mercer Mayer
Who's That Knocking on Christmas Eve? by Jan Brett
If You Take a Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numeroff
Your Are My Miracle by Maryann Cusimano
The Last Straw by Fredrick Thury
Keep in mind my boys are six and under so our definition of action/adventure might be on the lighter side. These plus many mentioned keep their attention and are not at all cartoonish or too simple.
I have to say that Letters to Father Christmas is probably the most ongoing adventure type book the boys have really been captivated by (even this young). We read a few letters a day and it's been hard to stop.
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MaryM
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Yes, this one definitely came to mind for me too, but it is sort of one of those emotional climax books, so I hadn't included it. Love this book.
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Grace&Chaos
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MaryM wrote:
Yes, this one definitely came to mind for me too, but it is sort of one of those emotional climax books, so I hadn't included it. Love this book. |
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I know what you mean, thus, my age disclaimer . My boys love the illustrations, lots of action (Robin Hood) type images in them. Since the books sit in a basket sometimes the illustrations have to stand alone if the book isn't being read to them. My little boys will sit & look at a book and just make up their own story by the pictures. This one has plenty for them to imagine
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MaryM
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So is anyone familiar with The Christmas Cookie Sprinkle Snitcher? I found it searching for Christmas books that would fit this category. Not familiar with it, but based on the reviews at Amazon, begging for this book to be reprinted, saying is was a big part of Christmas tradition in their houses growing up, figured there must be something there. So it looks like it has finally been reprinted (2010) to lots of happy folks. I requested that our library purchase it.
I did some searching on it and found this You Tube video. It is from an old PBS Educational Network show from Nebraska - Tales in the Treehouse. The text is read on this show. If you can get past the insipid tech music, the over-the-top circ. 1970-80's host, it is a hoot. Well in fact those elements add to the goofiness. Oh the 70's!!!! Anyway, the illustrations they show are reproduced watercolors for the show and not the actually text illustrations, from what I can tell from other episodes.
The book is pretty goofy - lots of rhyming text and a completely whimsical/funny premise. Suzanne, you are always looking for great rhyming books, right?
And a side note - the company that has reprinted the book is one that is working to reprint OOP children's classics for new generations.
Purple House Press
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CrunchyMom
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Well, another book that my little boys LOVE (though, I'm not sure it is up to your standards here, Ellie) is The Sweet Smell of Christmas. I remember having a copy of this book and loving it as a child, and we actually inherited DH's copy from his childhood. Our 35 year old copy is long past smelling like anything but dust, lol, but it is a sweet little book that delights the younger set.
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4Real Forums : Picture Book Discoveries
Topic: Christmas for BOYS!
