Thanks to all who responded! Here is the HIT many of you asked for:
I love The Night Tree by Eve Bunting. The family decorates a tree with food
for the wild animals of the forest. Certainly qualifies as a gift!
Of course, The Gift of the Magi is appropriate. If the teacher reads the story
aloud I believe 4th grade students would love it.
I just finished reading "The Christmas Doll" by Elvira Woodruff with my
5th grader. It is so lovely! The little girls in it are orphans, and
true to storybooks, they are the ones who teach the meaning of
Christmas. That the best gift of all, is the gift of giving, not of
getting. It's truly precious!
Silver Packages by Cynthia Rylant - This is a beautiful book.
My favourite Christmas "meaning of gift giving" book is "The Christmas Orange", by
Don Gilmour. A greedy kid asks Santa for multiple presents, but receives only one
- an orange. He takes Santa to court for breach of contract, and ultimately
figures out that the orange was "the perfect gift". It is a picture book, but I've
found that it works very well with older kids (the K-2 set find it a little too
complex in my experience).
I don't know if it's available in the US, but here's an Amazon.ca link to it.
http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0773731008/qid=1100786214/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_0_2/701-2671658-1247549
night tree by eve bunting
Might she want to use The Grinch??
This is the best. I read it to my 4th and 5th graders last year.
The Christmas Menorahs: How a Town Fought Hate
by Janice Cohn, Bill Farnsworth
I'm not sure if it fits your request perfectly, but The Christmas Tapestry by
Patricia Polacco is a wonderful story and worth reading!
I adore the picture book titled, The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan
Wojiechowski
An easy answer is The Polar Express. There is also A Present for Mama by Marice
Sendak. A Wish for Wings that Work by the cartoonist that does Opus, is a good book
of doing something very nice for someone. Try putting Christmas Gift in a library
catalogue, that usually helps me to find things.
Good Luck.
---------------------------------------
Gloria Pitsley
Library Media Teacher
Sargent Elementary School
Beacon, NY
gpitsley@aol.com
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