Picture Book Saturday (45)

With the holidays upon us, I figured I'd feature some new holiday books. These are all Christmas books. That doesn't mean there aren't holiday books celebrating all the other winter holidays; it just means that we only had Christmas books show up on our new book cart recently.

Scaredy Squirrel Prepares for Christmas: A Safety Guide for Scaredies
By Melanie Watt
Published 2012 by Kids Can Press
I'm a big fan of Scaredy Squirrel - actually I'm a big fan of all of Melanie Watt's books. I really like her style and her sense of humor is spot on. Kids are always asking for the Scaredy Squirrel books. So I was thrilled to see this new holiday book arrive. This is actually significantly longer than previous Scaredy Squirrel titles - it's divided into chapters, outlining everything a person (or squirrel) needs to know to prepare for the holidays. That trademark humor is once again present and the exact perfect amount of holiday cheer graces the pages.

Christmas Parade
By Sandra Boynton
Published 2012 by Little Simon
I was a bit of a latecomer to the Sandra Boynton party but now I think every new book of hers is a cause for celebration. This arrives just in time for the holidays and showcases a raucous and delightful Christmas parade. I love her illustrations - they suit the sense of humor of the books so well. I also enjoy that her books show you don't always need a story line to have a fun book that will appeal to kids.

The Christmas Quiet Book

By Deborah Underwood, illustrated by Renata Liwska

Published 2012 by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children

I very much enjoyed Underwood and Liwska's earlier collaborations, The Loud Book and The Quiet Book. To celebrate the holidays, the two have united again for this title, which celebrates the kinds of quiet one can only find around the holidays. There is the "knocking with mittens quiet" and "hoping for a snow day quiet." I think I might even like this one better than the other two titles - there is something so beautiful and magical about the quiet holiday moments highlighted here. Completely charming and gives you a warm feeling inside.

Santa from Cincinnati

By Judi Barrett, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes

Published 2012 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Here is everything you wanted to know about the boy who grew up to be Santa - told through photos and memories from his family and friends. This is a fun imaging of Santa's growing up - could he have played in a rock band? Were his first words really "ho ho ho"? Young readers will enjoy debating what parts of this biography they think are true and what parts they find too silly. Vibrant illustrations evoke the biographic feel of the story.