This week, I wanted to focus on Christmas books that are often overlooked on the shelf. We all see the bright, sparkly picture books for younger children – some are new, some are old classics. Then there are the Christmas-themed novels for older readers – many of these are simply Christmas-y extensions of existing series, like the Dear Canada Diaries (GREAT choice, by the way!), or Geronimo Stilton, or Junie B. Jones.

But between these two categories lie the illustrated chapter books. These books look like picture books—they are large, hardcover formatted books with beautiful illustration. But there is a LOT of text. They really are chapter books with the bonus of picture book style illustrations. Typically, these books are geared to the middle grade reader (ages 8+) but they also make fabulous family read-alouds. Not to mention, fantastic gifts.

Here are a couple of books I talked about on Rogers Daytime this week:

Forever by Roy MacGregor, Illustrated by Brian Deines

This is a beautiful, Canadian story about a family that celebrates Christmas by holding an annual Hockey Classic game on the backyard pond. Every year, “Bump” wants to join, but he has always been too small. Finally, Bump gets his chance to become part of the family tradition. Forever follows the story of Bumps family Christmases through the years, right up to when his own children are old enough to take part in the magic. A wonderful family story. Read a bit every night as you work your way through the chapters.

House of Wooden Santas by Kevin Major, Carvings and Illustrations by Imelda George

This book is set up rather like an advent calendar: there are 24 chapters so that you can read one chapter every night in your countdown toward Christmas. Every day, the mother in the story carves a new Santa figure, beautifully rendered here by Imelda George. These figures reflect what is going on in her son, Jesse’s, life at the time. Nine-year-old Jesse is dealing with a new neighbourhood, an unfriendly school-mate, and an unpleasant land-lady who wants to evict him and his mom. Over the course of these 24 days, Jesse tries to share the spirit of Christmas with others, and recapture some of that spirit within himself – with the help of his mother’s carved Santas.

Many young people are familiar with Lemony Snickett’s Series of Unfortunate Events. Well, he’s also written two hilarious holiday books: The Latke Who Wouldn’t Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story and The Lump of Coal. The first book is about a screaming latke. Seriously. Like the Gingerbread Man, he jumps out of the frying pan of oil and tears around town—screaming. Along the way, he meets various Christmas symbols (coloured lights, a candy cane and an evergreen tree) and explains to them that he is part of Hanukah, not Christmas. This proves to be a very frustrating exercise since no one seems to understand that Christmas and Hanukah are “totally different things!”

The Lump of Coal is also a clever story about a depressed lump of coal who dreams of becoming an artist. He follows his dreams and becomes a stocking stuffer for a young, misunderstood young boy who also has artistic aspirations. Together, they take on the world.

Finally, I have to mention one of my favourite books of last year, The Aboriginal Carol by David Bouchard, illustrated by Moses Beaver. This book is an extension of the Huron Carol, which we all know and love. The illustrations are absolutely beautiful. Furthermore, the poetry has been translated into Inuktituk (the language of the Inuit), and there is as CD included in the back of the book featuring Susan Aglukark singing the Aboriginal Carol in Inuktituk. It is a gorgeous book.