Merry Christmas! and a Holiday Giveaway!

Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Day and treasured their time spent with family. As I'm sure many of you know, back during the summer, my grandmother passed away. The first holidays without her have been challenging to say the very least. I'm having a difficult time making the adjustment from having her physically here to knowing that she'll always be here with me. That being said, I've done my best getting out Christmas-related posts, but I've really struggled getting in the spirit this year and fell behind on Christmas blogging.

I do have a few titles remaining at this point that I had intended to blog about this past week. Time got away from me though, and it didn't happen. However, I do want to recommend these great titles, as they are well worth the mention and will be loved by children (either in this next week before New Year, as I technically still consider this the Christmas season, or keep the titles in mind for sharing come next Christmas)!

Lester, Helen.
Tacky's Christmas.
September 2010.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Review copy provided courtesy of publisher.

Complete with a CD of Tacky's "Tacky" Holiday Songs (including Deck the Iceberg, Sandy Clawz is Coming to Town, and I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas), Tacky's Christmas is sure to provide reading (and singing) enjoyment for your child as the holiday season is celebrated! Humor and the illustrations by Lynn Munsinger are just two of the things that returning Tacky fans will find enjoyable about this latest release in the Tacky the Penguin series!

Winters, Kay.
Who's Coming for Christmas?
September 2010.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Review copy provided courtesy of publisher.

This "Holly Jolly Lift-the-Flap" book is sure to be a hit with your little one beyond just the Christmas season! Children love lift-the-flap books due to the level of interaction provided. These books are a great way to get children interested in reading and interacting with text from an early age! Kay Winters' Who's Coming for Christmas? is the second time we've seen a "Who's" lift-the-flap interactive book for children (Whooo's That?, a Halloween title, was the first in 2009)... I wouldn't be surprised if we see more arriving in the future!

Appelt, Kathi.
Merry Christmas, Merry Crow.
September 2010.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Review copy provided courtesy of publisher.

The song-like text of this book will likely have you read-singing to your children! It's actually great fun and could possibly be my favorite new holiday title of the year! This might be a fun title to have a challenge with your children with... collect all of the items that the crow collects, and before revealing the crow's surprise, have your child create a surprise of their own... see how close anyone can come to what the crow has in mind! If you're really creative, you could put this text to music, and teach your child a new song for Christmas next year and have them act out the story while singing!

Engelbreit, Mary.
A Merry Little Christmas: Celebrate from A to Z.
September 2010.
HarperCollins.
Review copy provided courtesy of publisher.

You'll enjoy teaching your children all about the Christmas season using this A to Z treasury from Mary Engelbreit. Classic artwork and bright, bold text make this a read that children will likely be interested in... plus, there's so much to learn! From angels to the zillion ways Christmas brings cheer, there's nothing about the holiday that is forgotten in this new informational Christmas story!

Brown, Jeff.
Flat Stanley: Stanley's Christmas Adventure.
September 2010.
HarperCollins.
Review copy provided courtesy of publisher.

For those who love Stanley despite his flatness, this holiday title is sure to be a hit! How can you possibly go wrong when a favorite character returns to celebrate the holidays? Of course, you know Stanley is somehow going to come to the rescue in Flat Stanley: Stanley's Christmas Adventure... it wouldn't be a true Stanley story if he didn't come to the rescue in some way or another. What the readers have to discover is exactly how Stanley is going to be involved with a Christmas Adventure!

Lucky for you, one lucky blog reader will have the opportunity to share this story with their child(ren) and discover just that! I somehow received two review copies of this from publishers at HarperCollins and would like to offer up my second copy as a giveaway to my blog readers! Giveaway details can be found below!

HOW TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY:

• In a comment on this post, simply leave an email address in a comment.
• Deadline to enter is Wednesday, December 29th at 11:59PM EST.
• For an extra entry(or three):
  1. Become a subscriber/follower of my blog (+1)
  2. Blog about this giveaway on your own blog and leave a link in your comment (+1)
  3. Leave a tweet on your Twitter page and then leave a link in your comment (+1)
• Contest is open to U.S. Residents only, sorry for any inconveniences!
• Winner will be selected on Thursday, December 30th and will receive my second copy of Flat Stanley: Stanley's Christmas Adventure.

If you're interested in finding out more information about any of the books reviewed or if you'd like to purchase the books, click the cover image for a link to Amazon.com. I am an Amazon Affiliate, so any purchases you make after clicking these images will result in my receiving a small percentage of the sale price!