ECHO MOUNTAIN by Lauren Wolk ECHO MOUNTAIN is a story that deserves to join ranks with the other great middle grade classics such as Old Yeller and Where the Red Fern Grows in my opinion which is why it's joining MY TOP PICKS! Set in the rural mountains of Maine during the Great Depression, Echo Mountain brings to life one family's attempt to leave town and the life they know and carve out a new life by the sweat of their brow. Ellie, the middle daughter, her younger brother, and her father embrace the new life, while her mother and older sister struggle with the transition. Then the accident occurs. Ellie's father is knocked unconscious when a tree he is cutting down falls on him. Ellie's mother and sister blame her for the accident. Ellie doesn't bother to correct them, knowing that neither could handle the weight of the truth that really happened that day. After remaining unconscious for a lengthy time, Ellie decides it's time she helped her father wake up. She has some interesting ideas to try, but she figures the hag that lives at the top of the mountain that she's been forbidden to go visit might have a few more. If you love rich, coming of age, adventure stories that are beautifully written, this one will be a perfect fit! I am quickly developing a love for Lauren Wolk's writing!

CHILDREN'S WORLD COOKBOOK by Angela Wilkes and Sarah Khan With 4 daughters in our home, a lot of time has been spent cooking in the kitchen together over the years. All of my girls enjoy the art of cooking. I am constantly on the hunt for new recipes and new cookbooks for us to use, and when at a Paper Pie booth (formerly USBORNE), I picked this cookbook up. This is exactly the type of book that would have been grabbed and saved for a Christmas Book Box or added into our homeschool day paired up with a World Geography lesson. USBORNE does a wonderful job of covering the pages with lots of pictures/drawings and step-by-step instructions for easy understanding, so success is guaranteed for our newly emerging cooks. In this particular edition, 27 different countries are highlighted. New spices, new textures, and new experiences are featured to expand knowledge and learning in the world of cooking. Each country starts off with a simple paragraph of information about it and then includes a small write up about the history of the featured dish. This book is very well done! So how would I use a book like this? As mentioned above, it would be used for fun cooking experiences, alongside a geography lesson, or I am also thinking about Chinese New Year coming up soon. There are 2 recipes that would be fun to use when learning about the holiday. Any way you look at it, there's lots of possibilities!

BREADCRUMBS by Anna Ursu I have to admit, I didn't know exactly what to think of this one at the start, but it grew on me a bit as I read it. Based on Hans Christian Anderson's fairytale The Snow Queen, this modern retelling does just that. It keeps some of the foundational elements of the original tale and weaves in difficult situations that too many kids are familiar with today. Hazel's dad has left her mom and is about to get remarried. Originally, attending a private school that she was thriving in where creativity and exploration were king, Hazel now has to attend the local school, and she's not making it. The one positive is that it's where her best friend, Jack, goes. The kicker is Jack has his own problem he's dealing with. His mom is dealing with life-altering depression. Once an active and involved pillar in his life, she sits and stares lost to the world for hours on end. If you read HCA's original tale, a demon creates a mirror that had "the power of making everything good or beautiful that was reflected in it almost shrink to nothing, while everything that was worthless and bad increased in size and looked worse than ever." When the mirror shattered, shards fell and embedded themselves into people changing their life perspective. Such is the case in Breadcrumbs except the mirror is created by a goblin. One of the falling shards lands in Jack's eye, and he changes. The good things in his life are minimized and the hard stuff maximized. It isn't long after this that he has an encounter with the Snow Queen who promises him a place where his heart's desires would come true. Primed and ready to leave all the hard stuff in his life behind, he follows her into the woods to a place where his heart begins to freeze and no longer cares about what lays back in his old life. After being gone for a few days, Hazel doesn't believe the story that he's staying with his aunt. Something's not right, and she plunges into the woods determined to rescue and bring her friend back. Of course, this is where the fairy tale part picks up as Hazel encounters lots of unique situations. The story is written in a beautiful style befitting for a fairy tale, but it is complicated. Unhappiness dogs Hazel and Jack, and in the end, SPOILER ALERT Hazel does rescue Jack, and they do have the beauty of their friendship, but none of their difficult home situations get resolved. The reader holds onto the knowledge that they have each other as friends to weather the storms together. Ultimately, we see themes such as never giving up on a friend and perseverance, but there is still a bit of lingering sadness that haunts the reader when the cover closes. As I often tell my own kids, in life things are not always wrapped up neatly and tied with a bow. A couple of side notes - I did find it interesting to go back and read the original story. One of the fun things about this book is it's nods to lots of literary greats! Obviously, The Snow Queen fairy tale, but then also The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Alice in Wonderland, and A Wrinkle in Time. HEADS UP- There is magic in this book since it is a fairy tale retelling. As mentioned above, both kids are dealing with difficult home situations.

DASHER AND THE POLAR BEAR by Matt Tavares Settle in tight, because it's time to travel to the icy lands of the north for a new Dasher adventure! Many of us here in Ohio were blessed to be able to see some of the Northern Lights during 2025. While in no way could we see their crisp, moving beauty like our northern friends, it still was a sight to behold. DASHER 's latest adventure finds her delighting in the northern lights. She lands to bask in the beauty of their colors, and in doing so, stumbles upon a polar bear who has a wish to fly. Dasher attempts to help her new friend without success. Confused about why Christmas magic works for some, but not others, she returns home. That's when Santa steps in with a plan on Christmas Eve night: a gift that blesses not only Dasher's new friend, the polar bear, but Dasher herself, because what greater gift is there in life than being a part of helping a friend succeed? This story is a timely reminder that the blessing of giving to others is an amazing gift in itself!

MERRY CHRISTMAS, MY DARLING DEAR by Amy Kavelaris LAUREN'S PICK #4 First off, I just have to acknowledge the great play on words in the title!! If you are looking for the gentle picture book that opens the door to the conversation for the real reason of Christmas - the gift of Christ- then this is your answer. Beautifully sweet and tender, a doe leads her fawn to look past all the wrappings and decorations to the story that unfolded in a stable many years ago that affects us just as greatly today. The presents are thrilling, and the decorations are a sight to behold, but the truth is they're a passing moment of flurry and fun without the message that anchors us all year long. Told in rhyming verse, Merry Christmas My Darling Dear is a moment of stillness and meaning in a season of run, run, run.

O. HENRY FOR THE HOLIDAYS by O. Henry If you are a lover of short stories that often deal with an ironic twist, this book is perfect for you. Most of us are familiar with O. Henry's famous "Gift of the Magi," (if you aren't, I won't ruin it here for you, but I would highly encourage you to get a copy and read it!), and this edition includes that and 6 other holiday stories. I found myself enjoying curling up with this book in the evening and reading a short story before bed or slipping it into my bag to read during time outs/halftime in basketball games. It's the type of read that could be shared around the dinner table with jr. high through adult age. (That's what I initially intended it for and will hopefully get to do in the next week or so! ) If you do end up reading this edition, make sure and read the end notes about O. Henry and his life.

THE OWL WHO CAME FOR CHRISTMAS by John Hoy. Illustrated by Garry Parsons. Our family has a love and "soft spot" for owls. Living in the woods like we do, it is always a treat to see them and hear them call back and forth to each other. We mainly enjoy the company of barred owls, but we will occasionally hear the haunting cry of a screech owl, and one time I spotted a great horned owl! With this in mind, anytime we see a book that involves an owl, we are checking it out! THIS IS LAUREN'S BOOK 3 PICK from her book shopping excursion! The Owl Who Came for Christmas is a GREAT read to share with kids, because it is based on a TRUE STORY! A family goes and purchases a Christmas tree from a tree lot, takes it home, decorates it, and is enjoying it in their home when one of the kids notices what looks like an ornament is actually a live screech owl. Can you even imagine? There is a part of me that thinks that is the "coolest thing ever," and there is part of me that thinks "what a nightmare!"  (I hate when my momma logical side rears its head evaluating the truth of a situation instead of just looking at the magic of it all!) Anyway! The book shares the "rest of the story" (as Paul Harvey infamously used to say!), and I'll just end this summary by saying that she (yes, the owl is a female) is safely removed and released! I am always reading the Author's notes and publishing info when I start noticing certain things such as unique vocabulary in a story. What is interesting with this book is that the event happened here in America (and there are real pictures and info at the end of the book on the true story), but it is written as if it occurred in England. You'll see words such as Mum, garden, and lorry. I am always fascinated by little things like this! This is another great read to snuggle up with littles and imagining an event like this really happening!

LOWLY WORM SAVES CHRISTMAS by Richard Scarry This is BOOK 2 of my daughter Lauren's picks from the bookstore close to where she attends college. We are huge Richard Scarry fans in this house. I grew up on Lowly Worm, Huckle, and the other great characters, and as soon as they were ready, I introduced my kids to his fantastic work. How fun that this year one of the stories he published in Family Circle magazine's December 1973 issue was revamped a bit and published in book form! As soon as my kids saw it in the new Christmas book pile, it was snatched out and passed around. It traveled with me to a basketball game to read where I handed it to my mother (the one who introduced me to Richard Scarry) for her to enjoy. It wasn't long before I heard her chuckling at Lowly's antics! For those of you who have kiddos that love Richard Scarry, what do you think my kids' first question was (after they knew that Lowly and Huckle were in the book)? Is Gold Bug in the story? The answer is YES, HE IS! Every two page spread has Gold Bug hidden in it somewhere. That was an automatic win! On to the story itself! It's close to Christmas, and Lowly receives a mysterious call. Santa Bear's elves are sick, and they can't get the toys ready in time. Would Lowly please come to the North Pole and help out? Of course! Lowly is always willing to be a helper, but along the way he has his usual hilarious mishaps that make Lowly so endearing to his readers. One mishap in general is guaranteed to cause some laugh-out-loud moments! Tons of fun!

MR. WILLOWBY'S HEAD OVER HEELS CHRISTMAS by Robert Barry Today, I have the fun of bringing two books from authors that passed away several years ago that were published this year! The first is Mr. WILLOWBY'S HEAD OVER HEELS CHRISTMAS. If you loved Mr. WILLOWBY'S Christmas Tree, then you will surely love this second adventure. The manuscript was discovered in a file cabinet drawer by Robert Barry's son after his father passed away. It's Christmas Eve. Mr. Willowby is waiting for the delivery of his Christmas tree, but the truck is stuck in a snowdrift. Looking through the window, Barnaby Bear notices how sad his friend is. Why, he knows where Christmas trees grow up on the mountain! He'll just go get one and deliver it himself! This begins a sledding adventure that gathers a lot of unsuspecting friends in the process and brings them right to Mr. WILLOWBY'S door in time for Christmas. Told in rhyming verse, this old-fashioned styled story celebrates the joy of togetherness during the Christmas season! A super fun read!!

THE WONDER OF CHRISTMAS by Ken Petersen and Randy Petersen I am going to go ahead and write about the Advent Devotional we are going through together as a family. Even though we are not all the way through, it has been such a great read. Each day focuses on a word such as Angel, Gifts, Herod, Immanuel, Manger, Caesar, Impossible, etc. The book then beautifully dives into the Biblical and historical context surrounding each chosen word. Sometimes it traces the thread back to other places in Scripture that link the words together giving an even deeper meaning. Closing the study out each day is a chosen carol that contains the word. Many times these are obscure carols, ones that we are not overly familiar with. We Google the songs and enjoy hearing a new piece. Overall, it has been a great study for our family! This definitely fits well if you have older children 7th grade and up!

THE OLD SLEIGH by Jarrett Pumphrey and Jerome Pumphrey While not specifically a Christmas story, The Old Sleigh is a story about giving, so I'm adding it to the Christmas BOOKLIST as well as the Winter BOOKLIST. The Old Sleigh is a heart warming story about a father and son and their dedication of providing firewood to the people in their town. As the town grows, so does the load on the old Sleigh until it finally breaks. But that's not where the story ends. While the father repairs the big, old sleigh, the son makes a small sled from some of the broken wood that he can use to deliver small loads with. The ultimate beauty of this story is how the son continues the tradition of caring for others that his father taught him. This moving picture book not only helps to start conversations about caring for others but also serves as a reminder to us parents that our children are always watching our actions! Highly recommend!

THE VISIT by Mark Kimball Moulton. Illustrated by Susan Winget. Have you ever wondered where the poem "The Night Before Christmas" came from or why it was even written? Author Mark Kimball Moulton had the opportunity to interview Dinghy Sharp, the great-great-granddaughter of Clement Clarke Moore, writer of the infamous poem. What she related to him was a beautiful story so wonderful it deserved its own picture book. A story filled with love and the beauty of sacrificial giving. The Visit is what I like to call a meaty picture book. It's longer and contains more words than the typical one does. As an added bonus, Moulton relays this story in verse form as a sort of tribute to the original poem. The illustrations in The Visit are very Victorian to match the timeframe of the story. Loads of greens, reds, golds, and whites fill the pages acknowledging its Christmastime heritage. The Visit is beautifully written and a wonderful story to share if "A Night Before Christmas" holds a special place in your home! I highly recommend this book!