An I-Can-Read Holiday Book

Everyone is looking for holiday books this time of year, and I just read one that I wanted to share here. (By the way,  isn't it amazing just how many holiday books there are? My wonderful parent volunteer collected many of them for a display, but still wasn't able to pull all of them because we ran out of shelf space in our seasonal area.)

Now to the book:

Paterson, K., & Brown, J. (1997). Marvin's best Christmas present ever. New York: HarperCollins.

I found this one in my library and decided I needed to read it. First of all, Katherine Paterson wrote it. Second of all, Katherine Paterson wrote it. 

Katherine Paterson won the Newbery Medal in 1978 for Bridge to Terabithia, and in 2013, she received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award.  I have a wonderful memory of attending the 2013 Newbery-Caldecott-Wilder Banquet in Chicago, IL, where I waited in line (happily) to congratulate Katherine Paterson for the award. I'll never forget that day. 

Honestly, I don't know if I made much sense when I spoke to her. My eyes came to tears with absolute book joy. 

But back to the book! 

This is the story of a boy who really wants to give his family something wonderful for Christmas. Marvin lives in a trailer with his family on a farm that belongs to someone else. Realizing that Christmas is coming, he asks his sister for gift-giving advice. Noting that his gifts haven't exactly been perfect in the past, Marvin sets out to do something really special. He finally decides upon making a wreath to display outside their home. His sister helps him make the large wreath, and the gift is admired and appreciated. But then Christmas passes, and Marvin can't part with the wreath. Other holidays come and go, and each time someone in his family wants to get rid of it, someone else wants to keep it. Marvin's family comes together, and what you realize is that his gift connects them and helps Christmas last longer. At the end, it becomes special in another way. I'll let you read the ending for yourself! 

The plot was completely unexpected - an early reader page turner. Jane Clark Brown's illustrations portray farm and family life with perfect delight: Dad walking home from the barn, Marvin and his sister feeding the chickens, Mom walking in from a shopping trip as playful cats greet her at the door. Details in the illustrations such as Dad's mud-soaked truck, the children's drawings on the refrigerator door, and those cats playing on every other page invite the reader into the family's home and story. The story is about much more than Christmas. It's about compromise, and selflessness, and persistence.

I will reread this one, and make Christmas last longer for me. And I will thank Katherine Paterson again for yet another story she's given me.