Christmas Book

[the browns <vbpaula@erols.com>]

Seasons Greetings,
  In honor of Black Friday I read What Child Is This by Caroline Cooney.
This wonderful Christmas story is outlined by lines taken from Christmas
carols, all listed in the source notes. With mature shades of Robinson's
Best Christmas Pageant Ever, it has a fresh appeal and I haven't cried
so easily in ages. This is the story of a male teenage foster child in a
struggling home and parallel stories of the affluent classmate with the
corporate surface personality father, the couple who lost a sickly
infant,  the classmate son of the warm fuzzy local businessman and the
ties that bring them all together, particuliarly in a younger foster
child's dilemma. The setting includes the snowy Christmas steepled
church of so many seasonal cards and the ending is happy.
        I am thinking this book best for 5th and up because of its
emotional pull, but I'd love to hear from others about the best ways
found to share it as one special holiday book. I think a play or a made
for television movie would also work. The carol lines cry out to be
sung in the background. They also make good academic punch bowl trivia!
Joy to you, and to you your wassail, too.
Paula Brown, Librarian
The Episcopal Academy
pbrown@ea.pvt.k12.pa.us

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