Saturday, December 4, 2010

Gift Books for Young and Old Alike


As you may know I love books of all shapes and sizes, written for all ages. So this Christmas list of books is applicable to kids and to those adults who still love the stories and the artwork - as some of the best artists are and were working in childrens' books - and collect books of all sorts. At my house, you'll find my 'grown-up' books sharing shelf space with books meant for children. I make very little distinction between the two.

In my list you'll notice two hard-to-find Little Golden Book covers: Baby's Christmas and Jingle Bells. Well, I just had to include two of the beautifully illustrated Golden Books of old. These two, particularly (Jingle Bells illustrated by the one and only J.P. Miller - my favorite illustrator then and now - and Baby's Christmas illustrated by the incredible Eloise Wilkins), are so joyfully done, they are well worth hunting ebay or wherever to see if you can find them. Flickr has a good portfolio of Golden Book covers. They're all fun to look at even if you can't actually find them to buy. All children young and old should know about these wonderful books.

You'll also see two books, The Wind in the Willows and Alice in Wonderland that aren't, necessarily, thought of as Christmas books, but I included them because when I read them they make me think of the Holiday Season everytime - they are just so festive in tone. Far as I'm concerned both these books should be in every home, whatever the season.


2 comments:

  1. You've hit on so many of my family's favorites! Love, love William Joyce's books!

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  2. Isn't he the best? I have several of his books in my collection. And I'm crazy about J.P. Miller's work - he did the illustrations for the Jingle Bells book. And isn't the cover for Madeleine's Christmas something else? I love picture books. Every kid (and that includes me) should have at least three or four of these books if not more.

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