Booklist on a familiar theme—December 17, 2010
This year it’s “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” a carol that enumerates 12 increasingly grand gifts given on each of the twelve days of Christmas. It’s a different holiday tune each year which keeps repeating over and over in my head until it takes on a new twist. Like twelve days at the library or twelve days, twelve books.
Let’s get right to the pear tree. “Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half with America’s Cheapest Family : Includes So Many Innovative Strategies You Won’t Have to Cut Coupons,“ a new title by Steve and Annette Economides, states “Most young fruit trees take a few years to reach their bearing potential…but the prospect of fresh, organic, healthy, wonderfully juicy fruit is enough motivation to keep us going.”
The gift of three French hens takes on new meaning in the 2005 New York Times bestseller “French Women Don’t Get Fat,” subtitled “the secret of eating for pleasure.” You will find this gem in the diet section though it is described as the ultimate non-diet book.
It turns out the four calling birds are probably colly birds or blackbirds. Midst the hustle and bustle of the season, take time to share with the little ones in your life Mother Goose rhymes, including “Sing a Song of Sixpence,” from the beautifully illustrated “Favorite Nursery Rhymes from Mother Goose,” with artwork by Scott Gustafson.
Remember the pageantry of the 2010 winter Olympic games from Vancouver? View exciting highlights with the DVD “Vancouver 2010.” Watch for the famous five interlocking rings of the Olympic games symbol.
Two of the 12 gifts are stitched together. Can you guess which ones? Check out the dove quilt stencil from the Hastings Quilters Guild quilt stencils collection. Ask for the stencils at the front desk. In the new title “Quilt Blocks on American Barns” from the Quilt in a Day series, see the Gambrel roof barn with flying geese block.
E. B. White, who gave us the children’s classic “Charlotte’s Web,” wrote “Trumpet of the Swan.” Louis, a voiceless trumpeter swan, finds himself far from his wilderness home when he decides to communicate by learning to play a stolen trumpet.
As many of us know, some children’s picture books are just as much fun for adults. The dairy connection (8 maids a-milking) may lead you to unabashedly check out “Click, Clack, Moo : Cows that Type” by Doreen Cronin. You won’t be sorry.
Allow the image of nineteen lords and ladies dancing and leaping to transport you back to medieval times when the nobility included kings, lords, knights and ladies. Do not overlook the Newbery Award winning audio book “Good Masters! Sweet ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village” by Laura Amy Schlitz.
Finally, relax with music CD's “Amazing Grace : A Real Highland Fling” and the Vienna Boys’ Choir’s “The Little Drummer Boy.”
