"Something for Christmas" - a bookwrap

Christmas will soon be upon us.  Everyone will frantically be searching for that perfect gift to give to someone they love.  They wearily will trudge from store to store, they will fire up their computers to go online to surf the world, they will browse through piles of craft books and burn through Pinterest and Etsy to find that ideal gift to create.  Will they find it? Does it even exist?  Today's classic book can answer that question for you and can save you a lot of stress and worry...enjoy. Sometimes the best things in life are right under our very noses and totally free!

Unwrapping...

Written and illustrated by Palmer Brown

Ages 3-7
Pre-School - Grade 2

Unwrapping some illustrations for you to take a peek at...

My review...

The New York Review Children's Collection has resurrected this fabulous little book that sadly went out of print.  It was first published in June, 1958 and is now back for us to enjoy.  

Little mouse is very heavyhearted on Christmas Eve and his mother questions him to find out why.  

"What are you doing dear?"

"It's a secret."

"Secrets are better if you share them a little. So tell Mother why you look so sad on Christmas Eve."

"I am wondering what to give--someone--for Christmas."

She asks him what he would like to give that person and through a two-way conversation he suggests a list of things he would love to give.  He finally comes to the realization that he is unable to make any of his well-intentioned suggestions come to fruition.  Like a good reporter, after Mother asks him the "what" question she follows up with the "why" question. 

"Well, come tell me, why do you want to give this person something for Christmas?"

His heartwarming answer just makes this little character even more endearing.  It makes the reader want to reach in, lift him gently off  the page and give him a great big hug.  A beautiful exchange of words and actions  between the two make his moving gift one of the most coveted and wonderful Christmas presents that a loving mother could ever receive.  The book is short, simple and truly brings you back to reflect on what Christmas is all about.

Praise for the book...

Here, the character of limited means is a small mouse, though his trouble is what to give rather than what to get, since ‘someone’ (really his mother) seems to have everything....With exquisitely adorable creatures fit to rival Peter Rabbit, the book provides a predictable answer—love—that will make it no less enchanting to young children. Out of print for 45 years, the book was long a cherished favorite, memorably read aloud on television by Captain Kangaroo.
— Pamela Paul, The New York Times

In Something for Christmas Palmer Brown tells and illustrates with charming pictures in pastel colors an endearing tale about a small mouse who wonders what to give his mother for Christmas and a mother who knows what is the best gift of all—one’s love!
—Polly Goodwin, Chicago Daily Tribune

About the author...

Palmer Brown (1920–2012) was born in Chicago and attended Swarthmore and the University of Pennsylvania. He was the author and illustrator of five books for children: Something for Christmas, Beyond the Pawpaw Trees and its sequel The Silver Nutmeg, Cheerful, and Hickory—all published by The New York Review Children’s Collection.

Other books by this author...

Read on and read always!

It's a wrap.

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