Patricia MacLachlan, illustrated by Brian Floca
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
2009, 83 pages
ISBN: 9781416990819
ages 8+
When Lily and her younger brother Liam make their annual trip to their grandparents' farm for Christmas, they notice that White Cow is all alone. Rosie the donkey, who is White Cow's friend, has gone back to her home leaving White Cow by herself for much of the day. White Cow's loneliness upsets Liam who sets to work, with his sister's help, finding a companion for White Cow.
The True Gift is a wonderful, heartwarming Christmas book about the importance of family, friends and thinking of others. Highly recommended!
The Christmas List
Richard Paul Evans
Simon & Schuster
2009, 353 pages
ISBN: 9781439150009
Richard Paul Evans has just had another entertaining, thought-provoking Christmas novel published - The Christmas List. The story is sort of a modern day A Christmas Carol which sees James Kier, a wealthy real estate developer, take a look at his life, his ruthless business dealings and their results and try to make amends. What causes Kier to return to the thoughtful, caring man that he once was? An article in a newspaper that mistakenly reported him killed in a car accident had a lot to do with it.
As Kier revisits his past to try to right his wrongs and deal with his broken relationships with his wife and son he discovers many things including the true meaning of Christmas.
The Christmas List is a good novel to read during the holidays.
Note: One thing about The Christmas List that I didn't like was the waste of paper. I counted approximately 90 blank pages throughout the book. When you include the pages where only the chapter number was written the number was more than 130 pages. Multiply this by the number of books published and you have a staggering waste of paper - something the species of our planet, and the planet itself, can't afford.
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