Double Scoop: In leiu of a double scoop book review this month, we participated in the Blog Advent tour with Caroling for Christmas. We also worked together on the Twelve Days of Christmas Reads to bring lots of variety to Christmas reading.

Cari’s pick of the month: This is hard lots of great books, but if I have to it would be Santa Claus the World’s Number One Toy Expert by Marla Frazee and Miss Spider’s ABC by David Kirk. The pictures in Miss Spider’s ABC are aMAZing!

Holly’s pick of the month: Ooo . . . So many good ones, how do I pick? I can narrow it down to two: I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas and The Practically Perfect Pajamas by Erik Brooks. They were a hit for Christmas!!!

Books reviewed by Cari

• Brisingr by Christopher Paolini
• Violet and the Mean and Rotten Pirates by Richard Hamilton, Read by Bill Wallis
• The Icky Bug Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta Illustrated by Ralph Masiello
• The Disappearing Alphabet by richard wilbur Illustrated by david diaz
• Miss Spider’s ABC Written and Illustrated by David Kirk
• Alphabet by Mathew Van Fleet Edited and Art Directed by Skip Skware
• G is for One Gzonk! by TINY DiTERLOONEY (aka Tony DiTerlizzi)
• Picture a letter by Brad Sneed
• Akira to Zoltán: Twenty-Six Men Who Changed the World by Cynthia Chin-Lee Illustrated by Megan Halsey and Sean Addy

For the Twelve days of Christmas Reads:

• Holly Claus The Christmas Princess by Brittney Ryan and illustrated by Laurel Long & Jeffrey K. Bedrick
• Who will guide my sleigh tonight? by Jerry Pallotta Illustrated by David Biedrzycki
• Christmas Tapestry by Patricia Polacco
• Auntie Claus by Elise Primevera
• Shall I knit you a Hat? a Christmas Yarn by Kate Klise Illustrated by M. Sarah Klise
• Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner pictures by Mark Buehner
• The Lump of Coal by Lemony Snicket Art by Brett Helquist
• Little Bear’s Christmas by Norbert Landa illustrated by Marlis Scharff-Kniemeyer
• The BIGGEST, BEST, SNOWMAN by Margery Cuyler Illustrated by Will Hillenbrand
• The Mouse Before Christmas by Michael Garland
• Welcome Comfort by Patricia Polacco
• Santa Claus The World’s Number One Toy Expert by Marla Frazee

Books reviewed by Holly

I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas by John Rox and Bruce Whatley

The Practically Perfect Pajamas by Erik Brooks, and more in Giving Books for Christmas
Bee Me by Elle J. McGuinness illustrated by Heather Brown

For the Twelve days of Christmas Reads:

• Flight of the Reindeer The True Story of Santa Claus & His Christmas Mission by Robert Sullivan, drawings by Glenn Wolff
• The Christmas Shoes by Donna VanLiere
• The Quiet Little Woman, A Christmas Story by Louisa May Alcott, presented by Stephen W. Hines
• The Great Santa Search As told to Jeff Guinn by Santa Claus himself
• The Christmas Box by Eve Merriam illustrated by David Small
• The Christmas Dolls by Candice Ransom, illustrations by Moira Fain
• The Bells of Christmas by Virginia Hamilton, illustrated by Lambert Davis
• Jingle Bells by Nick Butterworth
• The Christmas Candle by Richard Paul Evans, illustrated by Jacob Collins
• The Shy Little Angel by Ruth Brown
• On Christmas Eve by Peter Collington
• The Real 12 Days of Christmas by Helen Haidle, illustrated by Celeste Henriquez
• Baby’s Christmas by Francesca Allen & Felicity Brooks, illustrated by Rachel Wells

Notable December events:

We participated in the December Carnival of Children’s Literature over at Jen Robinson’s Book Page. Full of lots of great book recommendations.

We received two blog awards in December, which we are still happy about. The first was the Butterfly Award, and the second we received on Christmas Eve and never had time to pass it along because it was a Spirit of the Season award, and we were in the midst of celebrating our Season with family and friends. Does that mean we can pass it along next year? I’m not sure how this works.

Book Blogging News

One is that the Cybils finalists were announced at the beginning of January. So if you are looking for some great reads for children from picture books to non-fiction to graphic novels for young readers to young adult. The winners will be announced on February 14th. We can hardly wait.

Also Jen Robinson, Mother Reader and Wizard Wireless will be blogging at PBS Kids about literacy. We are excited to see the blog and can’t wait to comment. We are huge fans of PBS kids and the educational programing and the website is full of all kinds of activities and parenting advice.

Blog Picks of the Month

Sherry at SemiColon for those of you who don’t know hosts a Saturday Review of Books where you can post book reviews you did for the week.  It’s a fabulous way to see some excellent book reviews and add to a rapidly growing to-be-read list. It’s also a great way to let other bloggers know what your reviewing. In addition she archives the titles so you can look for more great books or check to see if others have reviewed the same book. She does all this on top of home schooling her children and writing some fantastic book reviews.

Stephanie at Children’s Literature Book Club runs a book club for adults who love children’s literature and since she recently moved to Utah guess who got to attend for the first time in December? Cari, who was very excited about meeting other people who share our love of kid lit and grateful that she is so willing to let a perfect stranger join. Also Stephanie is a Cybils judge this year and had been very busy reading and reading and reading to get through all the nominee.