I wear many hats – children’s author, mom, teacher, and grandmother. For a long time, I taught children with hearing loss, and every book I used with them I had to scrutinize for clear vocabulary, sequence, understandable sentence structure, and a high connection between text and illustrations. My students simply did not get the same benefit from books that missed the mark in one of those areas.

All young children go through the same stages of language development. Some (like my young hearing impaired preschoolers) had to work much harder at it than their hearing peers. As a new grandma, I carefully board books for the same developmental standards because I know that my baby granddaughter is learning language.

Look at the awesome Christmas book I found!

I was intrigued when I saw The Story of Christmas by Patricia A. Pingry (ISBN-13: 978-0-82249-1845-3) on the shelf. After all, communicating the true meaning of Christmas to little ones who are just developing language and who are experiencing the traditions of Christmas in their own world can be quite a challenge.

I loved this book so much that I bought TWO copies.

I decided to buy one to send to my eight-month-old granddaughter and a second copy to keep in Gigi’s library.

Here is why I like the book so very much:

• It began where any young child would be in this season – enjoying Christmas gifts with family. And immediately, it explains that Christmas is a celebration of a birthday – Jesus’ birthday.

Every child understands the excitement of Christmas and birthdays!

• The book continues by giving an easy-to-understand account of Jesus’ birth. There is one sentence on each two-page spread. Important words (angel, Mary, trip, stable, baby Jesus, etc.) are a different color to help parents emphasize the vocabulary for young learners.
• The illustrations and the text match. In other words, if a child is confused with the language or what is happening, the story is also told in pictures.
• The book teaches that the wisemen gave gifts to Jesus to show their love, and then it explains that we give gifts at Christmas to show our love and to celebrate Jesus’ birthday.

This book packs so much Biblical truth with a real-life connection for little ones.

Now it is your turn. What great Christmas books have you found for young kids? This author-grandma is always looking for more books.

Blessings,

Carol