Our Current Reading and Listening Pleasure

Dickens for Christmas. Yes, please.

At the library I recently found a little treasure for our book bag: Charles Dickens: Scenes from an Extraordinary Life by Mick Manning. It fits in perfectly alongside our Christmas repertoire.

I’ve said it before, but I do love great biographical picture books. And I love mixing biographies in with great literature selections for the younger crowd. When it comes to A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, we have a couple favorite retellings.

Have you listened to the audio stories by Jim Weiss? We have most of them (the result of collecting for years) and A Christmas Carol and Other Favorites (includes The Gift of the Magi, and Dick Spindler’s Family Christmas) is a fun one. I love being able to listen to the stories as we are running errands or heading out for activities.

We have several of the Eyewitness Classics collection. The Dorling Kindersley books have such a wealth of background and supplemental information. They make the stories come alive.

Eyewitness Classics: Christmas Carol is an excellent introduction to the story for younger children, complete with historical information about life in London in 1843. It has beautiful illustrations and photographs.

For Leif (my stubborn son who only wants to read Magic Tree House books) we have Magic Tree House Fact Tracker #22: Rags and Riches: Kids in the Time of Charles Dickens: A Nonfiction Companion to Magic Tree House #44: A Ghost Tale for Christmas Time because, when it comes to books, I always try to have something to please everyone!