Back by quasi-popular demand: the Book Lovers' Advent Calendar!

Well, so I made it through November again, which is always nice. As some of you know, I find November to be a sketchy month, mood-wise. I'm glad it's behind me,  and I can begin to start thinking about preparing for the idea of getting ready to commence the planning for Christmas. You know me -- don't want to jump the gun.

When the urchins were little, December 1st was the day that we brought out our basket of Christmasy, wintry, holiday storybooks. In those days, if I really had my act together (a 50/50 proposition) I would also hang our family Advent calendar, and put out the merry old basket of festive Hershey's kisses. But however disorganized I was about decorating our tree, or getting twinkle lights hung, or baking the delicious holiday treats, the Advent book basket was always ready to go.

Well, the urchins are all grown up now; each attends a college somewhere on the east coast, and I won't have a full house again until later in the month. But I do have a virtual basket of Advent-y, snow-filled, Santa-loving, Bethlehem-seeking books for you, as we prepare for the Christmas season. So go make yourself a mug of hot chocolate, and then come snuggle up and read some stories with me!

Here's a sweet little book to get us started. Some of us have put our trees up already, and some of us would like to get the tree up soon but cannot seem to get our act together (Yes. It's me.) and some of us choose to put our trees up on Christmas Eve in an alarming and radical counter-cultural fashion. But no matter when your family puts up your tree, this is a story that will make you love the idea of decorating a second tree for the creatures outside your own home. Night Tree, by Eve Bunting, tells a story of a family that takes popcorn, fruit, nuts and seeds to decorate a Christmas tree in the woods for the animals to enjoy. This is a great find -- such a cozy story!

"Read me a story, please!"

So I read this depressing article in The New York Times the other day (pointed out to me by my friends, Mary and Mark), and when I told the urchins about it, it got them depressed too. The article points out that parents are increasingly pushing their very young children toward chapter books, and away from the true picture book or storybook. It seems that more and more parents feel that picture books are "too babyish" for their precocious youngsters. Some parents worry that their wee one will have fallen too far behind in that all-important push to get into college, if the sweet lad isn't reading Dickens or Shakespeare by the time he enters school.

OK, maybe I'm exaggerating about the Dickens and Shakespeare (maybe not). But I do know parents who feel that the most insipid "chapter book" will somehow be a better reading experience for their children than the most lushly illustrated and creatively written picture book. I don't get it. And even worse, soon children will only rarely know the joys of storybooks; this makes me sad.

You know these books -- the ones with few words, or sometimes no words at all. For most people I know, these are the books that evoke the truest emotional response; many of my friends can recite whole chunks of their favorite (or their kids' favorite) storybooks. Raise your hand if you can recite Goodnight, Moon -- all together, now: "In the great green room there was a telephone, and a red balloon . . . ." One of my most vivid movie memories is at the end of the Tom Clancy film Patriot Games; Harrison Ford's character has just saved the planet, but now he settles in beside his daughter's hospital bed for a truly important job -- and begins to read: "The sun did not shine; it was too wet to play . . . ." Fabulous dad -- now there's a real hero!

The urchins and I have started an ongoing conversation about the books we loved to look at when we were little; each urchin has a particular favorite, but we also have realized that there are certain picture books that have become part of our family history: we refer back to The Runaway Bunny, Quick as a Cricket, A Fish Out of Water, and the monumentally wonderful Make Way For Ducklings on a regular basis.

One little phrase from one of our favorite stories evokes layers of meaning: we remember the story; we remember the feel of the beautiful book in our hands; and the memory also evokes images of snuggling up on the sofa or sprawling on mom and dad's bed while the story is read.

We are a family of readers -- you might have guessed that by now. And in our conversations about reading we have all agreed -- the joy of picking up a book and reading it all by yourself for the very first time cannot be over-stated. And the sound of a beloved voice, reading to you as you gaze at beautiful, intricate, funny, colorful pictures, or as you drift off to sleep with those images in your head, must be what heaven will be like.

Our picture books and storybooks are the books that made us fall in love with reading. I've illustrated my musing with some of my family's favorites -- I would love to know about your favorites, too!

And ooh! While we're talking about delicious books, here's a fantastic Halloween book about a witch who is not as scary as she thinks she is -- but she sure knows how to make some wickedly delicious blueberry pancakes! After you read the book you can make the pancakes -- the recipe is included in the story.

tangent: Old Black Witch was a book I loved so much as a kid that I kept it like a precious treasure for my own children. Of course soon after I placed it on their bookshelf, my old friend of a book got chewed to shreds by our dog, Toby AKA the Hound From Hell, may he rest in peace. Thank God for Amazon-dot-com!

Susan Cooper: THE DARK IS RISING Sequence

I wanted to tell you about these excellent books, written for older children. Susan Cooper is one of the finest writers of juvenile and young adult fiction I have come across, and I love to recommend her books. I read her The Dark is Rising sequence as a kid, and all of my urchins have read and loved the series.

The five-book sequence begins with Over Sea, Under Stone, in which we meet the three young Drew children, who are on holiday with their parents in coastal Cornwall. It has all the elements of a classic mystery/adventure, as the children find a treasure map; the treasure may in fact be the legendary Grail! They also realize that their Great-Uncle Merry is more than he seems. The magical or fantasy elements of the series are only hinted at in this novel.

The second book, The Dark is Rising, moves away from the Drew children and introduces Will Stanton, who begins to experience strangeness just before Christmas, on his eleventh birthday. We are also introduced explicitly to the themes of Light and Dark which animate the rest of the series. Will comes to understand that he is one of the Old Ones, guardians of the Light. He must go on a quest for the Circle of Signs, which will help the Old Ones ward off the forces of the Dark. Cooper draws on Celtic mythology as well as the Arthurian legend as she weaves her story about a young boy who realizes he must do a seemingly impossible thing.

Greenwitch, the third book in the sequence, returns us to the Drew children and introduces them to Will Stanton, whom they do not trust at first. The four children's adventure leads them on another quest, this time for an underwater artifact that may or not untie the mysteries of the legendary Grail.

Book four of the series, The Grey King, finds Will Stanton in Wales, recovering from a serious illness. As he regains his strength, he meets Bran, whose connections to the Old Ones and to the Pendragon of the old stories are uncovered -- to Bran's confusion and dismay. Will must call upon magic he thought was gone to wake the Sleepers in the Hills: the battle against the Dark looms closer and closer.

Silver on the Tree concludes the series, as Will, Bran, the Drew children, and Uncle Merry all join forces to attempt to defeat the forces of the Dark.

Here's what I love about these books:

1. They discuss good and evil, and the evil is really evil -- there's no doubt. But at the same time the good is powerful and explicit as well; the reader is never ambivalent about which side to root for! I think this may be because Cooper began the series in 1965; I love older fiction that is not afraid to take a stand!

2. The children all have a powerful and loving adult presence in their lives.

3. I love any literature that keeps the Arthurian legend alive! These novels also reference Celtic mythology in a way that made my urchins want to learn more. Now that's a good book!

4. Oooh -- she's such a good writer! The adventures are suspenseful; the relationships are real; the humor is witty; the children are not annoyingly sweet to each other.

Now I will say that I know these books will not please everyone. They are definitely intended for older children -- maybe nine years old and up? It's hard to tell, because every kid is different. If you have a precocious reader at your house I would encourage you to read these first, before you hand them to your kid. He or she may be reading at a middle school level, but may not have a middle school soul -- you are the only competent judge of that.

And while the battle between the Light and the Dark is explicit, it is NOT explicitly Christian. If you have a problem with your kids reading about supernatural adventures, or are concerned about introducing magic or witchcraft into your kids' literary repertoire, these may not be the books for you.

tangent: I could make a strong Christian argument on behalf of these books (as I can for the Harry Potter books, The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Macbeth -- all just chock full of witches and magic). But I will save it for another day!

I have illustrated this post with the covers of the books that my family know and love, but they have recently been re-issued. These newer editions are available at all the booksellers you love.

Happy reading!