Coming from a family of bakers, I love everything about this big and colorful Christmas book. Reading it made me look forward to that time, which is coming up soon, when the winds will turn cold and my kitchen will hold the aromas of cookies baking for the Holidays.
The story is told through Jack, whose father has traveled to the West to find work (I assume this is during the time of the Great Depression). Jack returns home one cold day to find his mother baking cookies for the needy in their church.
Through her telling of the history of the cookies, Jack learns about the tradition from his father's homeland of pressing the cookie dough into wooden cutouts to form the shapes which can be used to tell the story of Jesus' birth.
Jack is thrilled to receive one of the cookies as a Christmas gift but you will have to read the book to see what he does with it. ;)
The story by Dandi Daley Mackall is beautifully done, simple enough to keep the attention of young children but there is enough of a plot that older kids will enjoy it, too. The illustrations looked familiar and I was pleased to see they are by Richard Cowdrey, whose illustrations in The Legend of the Candy Cane were equally beautiful.
I highly recommend this book to give to children in your world this year for Christmas. Now you can learn more about it... here* but if it still says it ships in one or two months (which is strange as it is a brand new book?), there are plenty of options to order it from a third party.
Oh, not only does the book contain the history of the cookies Mom is baking but also the recipe. You could use a shortbread mold I expect, should you not be from Southern Germany or Austria and have a few wooden molds sitting around.
This book was provided by the publisher for the purpose of review but the opinions are my own.
*Most links to Amazon.com are Associate links.
1 comment:
That sounds wonderful! I have added it to my cart. It is now saying it will be available on Monday.
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