For the benefit of Kayli or Christmas Books

Just because this is faster than writing all about our Christmas, here's the list of Christmas books the kids received.  I think picking books is one of my favorite parts of Christmas shopping!

Ana: Savvy and Scumble by Ingrid Law (per Kayli's recommendation)

Elena: The Children of Noisy Village (also per Kayli's recommendation) and Ronia, The Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgren (I've like Ronia since I read when I was a child.)

Isabel: Tam Lin by Jane Yolen (I love this version and the pictures are perfect.) And Rimonah of the Flashing Sword by Eric Kimmel.  (It's like the Middle Eastern Snow White plus Ali Baba, it's great!)

Sebastian: Eyewitness Knights, and Iron John by Eric Kimmel, and Merlin and the Dragons by Jane Yolen.  So far we've only read Iron John but that was really good- I loved the ending.

Nicolas: Tom Thumb by Richard Jesse Watson (which was great and I loved the pictures), The Making of a Knight by Patrick O'Brien (I thought Kayli recommended this, but then she took it back and said it was boring.  Ruff)

Jubal: Saint George and the Dragon by Margaret Hodges, Bearskin by Howard Pyle

And yes, a bunch of them are illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman, and that is definitely no accident.  She's one of my favorite children's books illustrators.  I did buy How Six found Christmas by Trina Schart Hyman this year though, and it was completely disappointing though.  I don't recommend it.  And Kayli, we must have been on the same wavelength because I bought the Miracle in the Wilderness by Pauli Gallico too, before I read your comments on it, and was very disappointed in that as well.  Also, I did buy all the boys knight books on purpose, since they just got knight costumes for Halloween.  However, I bought them some books first and decided to keep those myself, so then I was *forced* to buy them other books.

Kami: Myths from Many Lands by Roger Green and illustrated by Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone.  That was of course, worth every penny.  And the Yeomen of the Guard also illustrated by the Johnstones and This Land of Kings, again illustrated by the Johnstones.  The last two were going to be for the boys, but umm, I decided they were too old to give them to toddlers.  For Kayli's benefit, The Yeomen of the Guard and Myths from Many Lands have the usual Johnstone illustrations on every page and are great.  The Yeomen of the Guard is based on Gilbert and Sullivan play and is a rather long story.  Honestly, I haven't read it yet, but I love the illustrations.  The Land of Kings only has 16 color drawings and a lot of them aren't really as detailed as usual, I posted one picture that is their typical and then one that if you can tell it looks a little less detailed and more flat.  And it has long stories about each king (the book is 126 pages) so one color illustration per story.  I thought it was fascinating though because of how well researched the drawings were--having just spent a lot of time looking at medieval clothes, each costume is exactly time period accurate and that's with only a couple of years between each time.  Yes, I'm a nerd.

 This drawing (above) I thought was up to their usual awesomeness.

This drawing (above) was typical of the book and not as good as their usual (I thought.)

Leo: (yep, Leo's included) The audio cd's of The Killer Angels and Guns, Germs, and Steel.  He is very excited to listen to them.  :)

The End.  I'll try to post about Christmas later.  Promise.