Review of Christmas Letters, by Debbie Macomber

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Christmas Letters

by Debbie Macomber

Mira, 2006.  269 pages.

I read one last Christmas book to finish up the season.  I actually read most of this book waiting at the dentist office, which was a very good time to have something to laugh about!  Christmas Letters is a true romantic comedy.

The book opens with a Christmas Letter from Zelda O’Connor Davidson.  She says, “Let me warn you — this Christmas letter won’t be as clever as last year’s.  My sister, Katherine (whom you may know better as K.O.), wrote that one for me but, ironically, she hasn’t got time to do this year’s.  Ironic because it’s due to the popularity of that particular letter that she’s managed to start a little business on the side — writing Christmas letters for other people!…

“This year’s big news, which I want to share with all of you, has to do with a wonderful book I read.  It changed my life.  It’s called The Free Child and it’s by Dr. Wynn Jeffries.  My sister scoffs at this, but Dr. Jeffries believes that children can be trusted to set their own boundaries.  He also believes that, as parents, we shouldn’t impose fantasies on them — fantasies like Santa Claus.  Kids are capable of accepting reality, he says, and I agree!  (See page 146 of The Free Child.)

“So, this Christmas will be a different kind of experience for us, one that focuses on family, not fantasy.

“Zach and the girls join me in wishing all of you a wonderful Christmas.  And remember, a free child is a happy child (see page 16).”

After reading this letter, when we meet K.O., we easily understand her aversion to Dr. Wynn Jeffries and his philosophies, which she feels have turned her twin nieces into holy terrors.  Maybe she’s a little over the top in her reaction.  Perhaps she shouldn’t have ranted at a customer buying Dr. Jeffries bestseller and gotten herself banned from a local bookstore.  But we do understand her hesitation when she learns Dr. Jeffries lives in her building, and her sister wants her to get his autograph.  She decides to do it, but then give him a piece of her mind.

Then her best friend, who has been taking a class to develop her psychic powers, sees Katherine’s future in the kitty litter.  LaVonne believes that K.O. and Wynn Jeffries are made for each other.  She finds a way to set them up that they can’t refuse.

It all adds up to silly, heartwarming fun.  Perfect for holiday or after-the-holiday being cheered up at the dentist’s, for example.

This book is set on Blossom Street in Seattle, but we only see in passing the characters from Debbie Macomber’s other Blossom Street books (at least the ones I’ve read).  Still, it’s fun to be in the same setting, feeling like you’re among friends.  A cozy, feel-good, lighthearted Christmas romance.

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Find this review on the main site at:

www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/christmas_letters.html

Review of Silver Bells, by Luanne Rice

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Silver Bells

A Holiday Tale

by Luanne Rice

Bantam Books, 2005.  274 pages.

http://www.luannerice.com/

http://www.bantamdell.com/

Here’s another Christmas story.  Oddly enough, I tried to read this book last year, and simply couldn’t get interested.  It felt predictable and sentimental.  This year, I picked it up, read past the beginning, and found it sweet, poignant and even unexpected.

Christopher Byrne is a Christmas tree farmer from Nova Scotia.  Every year, he sells his stock, commanding high prices, in New York City.  Last year, however, his 16-year-old son, Danny, decided to stay in New York City instead of coming back home.  This year, Christy and his young daughter Bridget want nothing more than to find Danny.

Meanwhile, librarian Catherine Tierney lives near the Christmas tree lot, but has a hard time with Christmas.  Three years ago, she lost her beloved husband to melanoma right at Christmastime.  However, Catherine tries to help people in memory of Brian, and all year a certain homeless boy has been wanting access to the private library she tends.

Yes, Christy and Catherine’s lives intertwine.  Yes, this story is about waking up to romance and about Christmas miracles.  The story is very nicely done.  I found that once I was in the right mood for it, I was treated to a heartwarming holiday tale.

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Find this review on the main site at:

www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/silver_bells.html

Review of Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, by Mem Fox

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Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes

by Mem Fox

illustrated by Helen Oxenbury

Harcourt, 2008.  40 pages.

Starred review.

Sonderbooks Stand-out 2009: #4 Picture Books

http://www.memfox.net/

http://www.harcourtbooks.com/

I saw this book listed on more than one end-of-the-year Best of 2008 list.  I’ve loved Helen Oxenbury ever since my 20-year-old son was a toddler who memorized the text in her Tom and Pippo books and “read” the books along with me.  Mem Fox I discovered later, but have an extra-special fondness for her books, particularly Harriet, You’ll Drive Me Wild!  http://www.sonderbooks.com/PictureBooks/harriet.html

So I simply had to check this book out.  I was completely enchanted.  I will definitely be using this book at my very next Mother Goose Time for babies and parents.  The book is only a few months old, and already I find myself thinking of it as a classic no parent of a baby should be without.

There was one little baby who was born far away

And another who was born on the very next day.

And both of these babies, as everyone knows,

had ten little fingers

and ten little toes.

Mind you, the picture on the page with “had ten little fingers and ten little toes” shows baby hands and feet so precious you just want to eat them up!  (No one draws babies so utterly adorably yet lifelike as Helen Oxenbury.)

The book goes on, in the sweet rhyming cadence, to tell of babies from all over the world.

As each set of two new babies is introduced, the earlier babies look on as a kind of adorable chorus.

The final stanza is what clinches this book as such a delightful exploration between parent and baby:

But the next baby born was truly divine,

a sweet little child who was mine, all mine.

And this little baby, as everyone knows,

has ten little fingers,

ten little toes,

and three little kisses   [Here are the earlier babies are laughing in anticipation!]

on the tip of its nose.

What can I say?  I think this is going to get tucked in with the next baby shower gift I give.  Absolutely delightful!  Go to your library and look at the illustrations, if you don’t believe me!

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Find this review on the main site at:

www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/ten_little_fingers.html

Review of Paper Towns, by John Green

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Paper Towns

by John Green

Dutton Books, 2008.  305 pages.

Starred review.

http://www.sparksflyup.com/

http://www.nerdfighters.com/

www.penguin.com/youngreaders

Wow.  Paper Towns isn’t quite like any other teen novel I’ve read.  At first glance, it’s a typical teen novel about parties and girlfriends and pranks and prom and graduation.  But it goes so much deeper, dealing with profound questions like whether we can ever truly know another person.

The opening of the book is awesome:

The way I figure it, everyone gets a miracle.  Like, I will probably never be struck by lightning, or win a Nobel Prize, or become the dictator of a small nation in the Pacific Islands, or contract terminal ear cancer, or spontaneously combust.  But if you consider all the unlikely things together, at least one of them will probably happen to each of us.  I could have seen it rain frogs.  I could have stepped foot on Mars.  I could have been eaten by a whale.  I could have married the queen of England or survived months at sea.  But my miracle was different.  My miracle was this:  out of all the houses in all the subdivisions in all of Florida, I ended up living next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman.

Quentin and Margo were friends as kids, but he hasn’t seen much of her since they started high school.  She moves in a much more brilliant circle.  Then, one night late in their senior year, Margo knocked again on Q’s window.  She convinced him to drive her on a wild night of sweet revenge.  The next day, she disappears.

Paper Towns deals with Quentin’s quest to find Margo.  As he looks for clues, he comes to terms with the fact that no one knew the real Margo.  Each of her friends saw her as someone slightly different.  Can we ever truly know another person?

Quentin must also face some of his own fears and figure out who he is himself.  Why did Margo choose him on her night of revenge, and why did she leave clues for him to find?  Did she expect him to find her?

I admit that, as a fan of John and Hank Green’s Brotherhood 2.0 video blog (see http://www.nerdfighters.com/ ), I had a tendency to “hear” Quentin’s voice as John Green talking.  However, that worked fine and made the character that much more believable and likeable.  It’s refreshing to read a teen novel from a guy’s perspective.

The author pulls off all this profundity with a light touch.  Quentin has friends who are nerdy and quirky, and he doesn’t go on his quest alone.  Some of the teen antics will make parents cringe, but other than that it makes for fun, light-hearted reading.

I read the latest posts on John Green’s blog at http://www.sparksflyup.com/, where he talks about some of the amazingly profound questions teens have asked him.  I think that’s his secret — He has nothing but respect for the thinking of teens.  He doesn’t water down the philosophical questions behind the story here.  So although it is indeed a teen novel, the issues raised are issues about being human, and will give people of all ages something to ponder.

I did enjoy An Abundance of Katherines, but I do think that John Green has grown as an author and I find Paper Towns an outstandingly well-crafted novel.  (What I’m trying to say is that I liked this new one even better!)

As a librarian, it will be interesting to see who I can get to read this book.  (I’ve already talked my teenage son into reading it, but he is already a fan of http://www.nerdfighters.com/, so he didn’t take any convincing.)  I find myself wishing it didn’t have a picture of Margo on the cover, since I think there are many teenage boys who would thoroughly enjoy this book, and I will have to talk them into trying a book with a picture of a girl on the cover.  (There are two covers for this book, one with a bright, happy Margo, and one more dingy, sad and dark.)  At any rate, for now the book is on hold, so it’s getting some buzz, and I will not have copies on the shelf to recommend to anyone. 

Definitely worth reading, for readers of any age who are willing to have some fun and explore questions about how they see the world.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on the main site at:

www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/paper_towns.html