Old and New, Tales for the Season

My family has always read books around Christmas time, it's been one of those times of year where one of the ways we celebrate and prepare for Christmas during Advent has been to read stories, lots of them.  We've been continuing the tradition with my little brother, so over the last few years I've gotten a chance to discover new books that we've added to our Advent reading tradition.

So here we go, my virtual basket of Advent and Christmas books!  I decided not to put them in any particular order, just divided up between picture books and the slightly longer "chapter books" (although many of these have pictures too :) )

Picture Books:

Chapter books:

And Jim Dale's audio book of A Christmas Carol is AMAZING:

Also, there are two books that we read a chapter from every single day during Advent starting on December 1st: 

In the morning, we work on our Jesse Tree, and we've been reading Geraldine McCaughrean's The Jesse Tree. And every evening when we light our Advent wreath part of our family time is reading Jostein Gaarder's The Christmas Mystery, and it is AMAZING!:

In The Jesse Tree, a grumpy old carpenter is trying to carve a Jesse tree out of wood inside of a church, but he keeps getting distracted by a young boy.  And in this distraction he finds himself getting swept up in storytelling, weaving stories that trace the family tree of Jesus, from the Garden of Eden to Christ's birth.  McCaughrean's retelling and Willey's illustrations bring fresh life to these tales and are the perfect companion to making your own Jesse tree!

Last year I discovered The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder, the author of Sophie's World.  We actually didn't get to finish it last year, but we're planning on it this year, and it's the most interesting book.  It serves as a sort of Advent calendar in book form, but in true Gaarder style, it is filled with mystery and interesting and unexpected turns and metafictional qualities.  A boy named Joachim, finds an old Advent calendar in a bookstore, but he soon finds out it's anything but ordinary.  Through the Advent calendar and the little pieces of paper that are behind each door, we become part of a mysterious story, one in which the characters are traveling across countries and back in time to the Birth of Christ.  There are just some simply beautiful passages too!

So, what books are you reading this Season?

Oh, also, I just found this and thought it was pretty amazing, a recording of Dylan Thomas himself reading his A Child's Christmas in Wales! :

Halloween Reading Haunts - 2012

So, here are my top picks for the best Halloween and Halloween/Fall-esque/Spooky picture books, children's books, YA novels and even a few "non children's books" novels!  The list is made up of some new books, some old favorites, and a few that I've been wanting to read but haven't had a chance to.  I would love to just sit all day on Halloween and read these books, but unfortunately I won't be doing that, maybe I'll sneak a few in though :)

Hope you enjoy your Halloween!

What books are you reading this Halloween??

For the children's/YA/Adult novel choices:

The next four are specifically novels surrounding the Salem Witch Trials, I used to be fascinated by this historical episode when I was in upper elementary school, which is probably strange, but I just found it so interesting and strange:

I was obsessed with this book when I was in third or fourth grade, not sure what it was about it, I'll have to go back and read some day and see why I continued to check it out:

And for the Picture Books!

This one was suggested to me by a few people, and I haven't read it yet but LOVE the illustrations so thanks to Julie Danielson and Lindsey Manwell for pointing me to it!:

One of my favorites when I was little:

And from Jane Yolen, haven't read this before but looks interesting, unfortunately my library doesn't have it!:

And last but not least, I'm not sure when this tradition stopped, probably about the time we got a DVD player, but I have fond memories of watching this movie every, single Halloween: