So on to The Christmas Crocodile by Bonny Becker which is illustrated by David Small. What a fun Christmas book!  On Christmas Eve, Alice Jayne finds a crocodile underneath the tree with a red bow around his neck.  It wasn’t there for long.  Because he ate it.  And then he ate some of the presents, a shoe, and the Christmas roast.  While he wrecked havoc on Christmas, everybody had differing opinions on what should be done with him.  Uncle Theodore wanted to send him to Africa, Aunt Figgy wanted to send him to an orphanage, and her father to the zoo but all that Alice Jayne wanted was to give him a home.

They all decided to sleep on it before making a decision, but the crocodile escaped from the basement and decided to take a little nibble of Aunt Figgy’s toes.  Alice Jayne understood that he didn’t mean to be bad.  Not really.  It’s not his fault that he eats up all of Christmas.  What are they going to do with him?

I just might have to add this picture book to my Christmas book collection.  The text is really fun, the illustrations by David Small are even funner.  For a picture book, the text is on the longer side side but I can’t imagine it even shorter.  There is something new to discover on every page.  I love how the book ends.  It will have kids giggling with imagination.

Bonny Becker website and David Small website.  Bonny is also the author of My Brother, The Robot (my book review), Holbrook: A Lizard’s Tale (my book review), Just a Minute, An Ant’s Day Off (my book review). and her newest A Visitor for Bear (my book review).  It’s my pleasure today to review Bonny’s books as well as host Bonny in a wonderful interview tomorrow.

Have you had any Christmas disasters that you can contribute to a pet?  Let’s hear them?!

Jamie Dexter knows all about the army.  After all, she is 12 3/4, not to be confused for 12.  Jamie’s father, the Colonel, is the chief of staff at their home, the army base at Ford Hood, Texas.  TJ, Jamie’s older brother plans on joining the army as soon as he’s out of high school and go to Vietnam.  Jamie can’t think of anything finer than to be a soldier and would the do the same thing if she could.  So when TJ actually does join the army, she becomes very confused when their father is upset and tries to talk him into going to college instead.  Isn’t joining the army that very best thing that he could do?  Why is her father so upset?

She’s thrilled though and can’t wait to get TJ’s exciting letters from the warfront.  Instead his first letter isn’t a letter at all.  It’s just a roll of undeveloped film that he asks her to develop.  Doesn’t he know that she doesn’t know how to process film?  Jamie volunteers at the rec center on the base and plays countless games of gin rummy with Private Hollister.  He mentions that there’s the darkroom and introduces her to another soldier who can teach her how to develop the black and white film.  At first, when she sees the images, she doesn’t understand why he chooses to  shoot what he does.  But slowly, the reality of the war sinks in.  She realizes that he could actually get hurt and die.  War is no longer what she thought it was.

Now her friend Private Hollister is in danger of being shipped overseas and she doesn’t want him to go.  She tries to convince her father not to sign his orders.

That night I spread out TJ’s Vietnam photographs on my bed.  The soldier in the wheelchair, the bandaged stump of what had been his right leg pointing straight at the camera.  A terrified child, naked to the waist, hands to his ears, running down the road, a helicopter hovering in the distance.  The soldier ont he stretcher, the wound soaking his bandages chest.  A hollow-eyed GI staring at the camera, the skin burned and scarred across his cheeks and forehead.

I left them all on the Colonel’s desk, fanned out like a hand of cards, where he would find them in the morning when he sat down to drink his coffee.

Shooting the Moon was a multi-sensory experience for me.  It brought so much of my own personal life into the story that I couldn’t help but relate to it on so many different levels.  My own brother is in the National Guard and has been ever since college.  He’s traveled to well over 25 countries including Iraq twice.  I know what it’s like to have a brother in harms way and pray each night that he will arrive home safely.  I’ve seen how hard it is on his wife and four children.  I know what it’s like to have him gone for Christmas and Thanksgiving  And then to eagerly await in the crowd as his plane touches down.  What’s even more peculiar is that my brother is also a photographer.  He brings home countless number of photos from his travels.  A lot of sightseeing and a lot of his bleak surroundings.  His wall at home is covered with amazing framed photographs of the world.

As if that’s not enough, I really related to the photography part of Shooting the Moon.  Having my degree in photography and having spent a lot of time in a darkroom myself, I could smell the chemicals that Jamie used while developing her film.  As she was in the dark taking the film off of the roll and onto the reel, I could feel with my hands the same sensation of trying to do the same thing completely blind.  The frustration of having to start over when it messes up.   I felt as thought I was in front of the enlarger in the dark, focusing my image, inserting the paper, and waiting and watching as I saw the image come forth in the trays of chemicals.   I loved being back in there with Jamie and I now realize just how long it’s been since I’ve been in the darkroom.  Man, I want to do it again right now.

Jamie’s father loves to garden.  Besides photography and reading, my third love is gardening.  During the spring, summer, and fall you will find me outside every day tending to my flower garden and vegetable garden.  A couple of years ago, I even received my Master Gardener’s certificate, one of the the most enjoyable things I have ever done.  There is something about being out there with the sun on your shoulder and the dirt under your hands that is amazing.  It’s soothing.  It’s satisfying to see the beauty that you have helped to bring out in the world around you.  I could completely understand why the Colonel would come home from a long day of being a soldier and work out in his garden.  It was his way to do something for himself, a stress reliever and a way to bring some beauty into a world of chaos and war.  I loved seeing him work out in the garden.

I loved Shooting the Moon. Highly recommended.  Don’t miss it.  Seriously.

Links of interest:  Frances O’Roark Dowell’s website.
Genre:  Juvenile Historical Fiction, approx ages 9-12.
Publisher: Atheneum.  January 29, 2008.
Hardcover, 176 pages.  ISBN 1416926909
Shooting the Moon is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

It has been a wonderful year!!! I have found myself grateful for the friendships that I have formed because of the awesome community that exists online and for my friends and family who have supported me this year.  I would like to wish you all very happy holidays and a merry Christmas from my family to yours!

May this season bring you and your family many blessings.

Merry Christmas!

From the publisher:

We see Mary – young, strong, and inquisitive – as she first meets Joseph, a serious-minded young carpenter who is steadfastly devoted to the religious traditions of their people.  The two become betrothed but are soon faced with an unexpected pregnancy.  Aided by a great and abiding love, they endure challenges to their relationship as well as threats to their lives as they come to terms with the mysterious circumstances surrounding the birth of their child, Jesus.  For Mary, the pregnancy is a divine miracle and a privilege.  For Joseph, it is an ongoing test not only of his courage but of his faith – in his wife as well as in his God.

The Handmaid and the Carpenter is Elizabeth Berg’s fictionalized account of what may have happened those many years ago.  I enjoyed the love story between Mary and Joseph.  It showed them as two normal teenagers under extremely abnormal circumstances, as well as their reactions to delivering the son of God.  I do, however, believe that Elizabeth Berg showed them as more ignorant than they really were.  I believe that both Mary and Joseph understood their role in history.  They spoke with angels.  I wish that there was more divinity present.  It has it’s faults.  But that said, this story was about their courtship, marriage, and becoming young parents.  As long as you don’t nitpick it, you’ll probably enjoy it.  I thought it was a nice nativity story.

The stories illustrates the true meaning of Christmas.  In one a girl scout is assigned a service project to visit a woman at the retirement home, and she finds that she’s not anything like she expected.  In another, a little girl is sent to live with her disinterested grandmother.  The farmhand gives her a little lamb that ends up being the star at the local nativity play.  And in yet another, a father learns the true meaning of Christmas when he stays home while his family goes to Christmas Eve mass.

I enjoyed these Christmas stories, they would be great for young readers who may feel like they are now to old for Christmas picture books.  I’ll try to track down the others for Christmas next year.

In twelve Christmas essays David Sedaris covers everything from being a Santa elf, neighbor competition, explaining the Easter Bunny to the French, and even murder.  Luckily, it’s a fast read.  Is this destined to be a Christmas classic?  Yes.  But probably not at my house.

I still want to try another one of his books to see if this was just a fluke.  Which one should I read first?

With that they gathered around the tree
and suddenly the tree could see,
it wasn’t as important to be a Christmas tree,
but to always be the best friend you could be.

I read this book to my three year old and while I couldn’t get through any of the text, he enjoyed looking at the illustrations, which were great.  So I would suggest it for maybe ages 4-8.  It’s a cute story with a good message about how perhaps what we’ve always wanted is right in front of us and the importance of helping a friend in need.

All these things are miracles.  It is a miracle if you can find true friends, and it is a miracle if you have enough food to eat, and it is a miracle if you get to spend your days and evenings doing whatever it is you like to do, and the holiday season – like all other seasons – is a good time not only to tell stories of miracles, but to think about the miracles in your own life, and to be grateful for them, and that’s the end of this particular story.

As the book cover says, “Is there a more charming holiday tale to behold?  Probably, but Lemony Snicket has not written one.”  If you love Lemony Snicket’s humor you will love The Lump of Coal.  Even though I’ve read reviews that said this book had them in tears from laughing so hard, I don’t think I even chuckled.  But that’s not to say that I thought it was fun.  I love the idea of a Christmas story told from the perspective from a lump of coal.  How often do we get that?  It’s clever and and full of Lemony Snicket’s off the wall snide remarks.  The illustrations by Brett Helquist (a Utah native and alumni from my alma mater BYU) were fun.  The lump of coal looked like . . .  well, a squat grumpy old man whom nothing went right for him.

Definitely worth checking out to see if it’s the right fit for your holiday reading.

Room for a Little One is a lovely retelling of the nativity story.  I love how it illustrates that there is always room at the inn for another little one.  That Jesus was born amongst the most humble of circumstances.  The illustrations by Jason Cockcroft give the book a magical, other worldly feel.  It was absolutely beautiful to read.  I would love to own this as the board book for the small hands in our home.

The Light of Christmas is a picture book that is just oozing with his trademark messages of charity, hope, kindness, and the true meaning of Christmas.  High in the mountains lies the Christmas town of Noel.  Each year the Keeper of the Flame lights the village Christmas tree.  But this year is different because he will choose somebody new to light the flame; that person must present to him the truest gift of Christmas.  Alexander is excited and hopes that he will be chosen although he has nothing to offer; the other gifts of song, stories, and ornaments surely are better than anything he can come up with.  On his way to the town to discover who will light the flame, Alexander finds a poor, old man lying in the snow.  Although he risks missing the lighting, he offers the old man help.  It is this simple act of charity that makes all the difference as he learns it’s not the material gifts that matter, rather it’s giving of yourself.

Although, the story was very predictable (you know exactly where the story is going just a few pages in), it’s a story that illustrates the true meaning of Christmas and will have you feeling all warm and fuzzy.  A excellent Christmas book to remind ourselves to step back and remember others in their times of need.

I enjoyed the illustrations by Daniel Craig, which hails from a Flemish influence.  They are solid, detailed, and infused with a beautiful light.  I particularly liked the illustration that shows Alexander bending down over the old man in the snow offering his assistance.  He has a look of genuine compassion.

All of Richard Paul Evans’s proceeds from The Light of Christmas (as is all of his children’s books) are donated to the Christmas Box House, an organization devoted to helping abused and neglected children by providing shelters, services, and advocacy.

Richard Paul Evans website and The Christmas Box House website.