May We Suggest……
Dr. Pamela Mitchell-Legg, professor of Christian Education at the Union Presbyterian Seminary Charlotte campus, continues to teach her course on children’s and adolescents’ literature that was the impetus for this blog. As we move into Advent and Christmas, she offers a bibliography of ten books that she loves. They range from picture books to story Bibles and we hope you find something that helps you pick out a gift for a child or young person in your life!
Other lists that we love in evaluating books to purchase for our younger friends can be found here:
- The American Library Association’s yearly list of notable books for children and adolescents
- The BankStreet College of Education suggests the best books of the year broken down into several different age ranges. Their reviewers occasionally include children! (Link to 2012 books no longer works, so it has been removed, but this is a good resource for anyone looking for good books at the end of each year.)
- Publishers Weekly breaks down their best books of 2012 into picture books, fiction and non-fiction. (And you can see their suggestions for best books for 2012 for adults as well.)
What books are you giving this year?
My Favorite Books for Christmas 2012
May We Suggest…… by Storypath is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
My top 10 picture books over Christmas are here
http://digitalorthodoxy.com/01-blog/my-top-christmas-picture-books/
Thanks, Darren! We love lists this time of year and we’re delighted to have yours! Hope our readers check it out as well!
Reblogged this on Rows of Sharon and commented:
Every Christmas I would give my children a book. (On their birthdays and at Easter too.) Here’s a great source that lists the best books for children in 2012.
Thanks, Sharon. I’ve always done that as well – and my grandchildren are now recipients of that same tradition! Ann Knox
I love this site and refer to it often as it supports the Making the Christ Connection strategy. Our blog site is thecece.org. Blessings to you in this ministry. Merry Christmas!
Thank you, Catherine. We are very grateful for your support and have looked at your own site with interest. Merry Christmas to you as well!
Hi again, I have been looking for information about Good Friday and possible secular book links. Do you cover this? If so please help me find examples. If not I am currently investigating how to present Good Friday to children and couple that with a secular book. I am considering a book on unconditional love to focus on the positive. What do you think? So far I am considering the book Papa Do You Love me?
Look forward to hearing back from you
Catherine
Catherine, You might check out the gospel post from this LL http://storypath.wordpress.com/2012/10/26/lectionary-links-sunday-november-25-2012/
Also, I just did a quick search of some buzzwords in some of my favorite book-hunting sites and here’s a couple of possibilities, though you’ll definitely want to read them first to make sure.
on the topic of betrayl: Fox by Margaret Wild
on the topic of the death of someone you love: Fox Song by Joseph Bruchac http://www.littlefolktales.org/reviews/foxsong.html
Alternatively, think about the theme you’re really wanting to discuss with the children of your church and do some searches of those keywords on library websites or even send out a request to FB friends. Those are some of my methods for seeking new books and often really helpful!
I hope some of this helps!
noell
Thx Noell. I will look into the suggestions. Would you please share your favorite book hunting sites. It would be most appreciated. Will let you know how this works out.
Noell and I work closely together so I’ll respond on this one. We have a subscription to a resource called Horn Book Online where she does some of her searching. But many public or school libraries have the print version of Horn Book Guide that you might be able to use. She also uses WorldCat which is a union catalog of thousands of libraries. Using their advanced search capabilities, you can limit your search to children’s books. Books will come up from libraries all over the world, or you can limit your search to libraries closer to your area. It is also possible to just search Google Books or Amazon, adding ‘children’s literature’ or an age level filter to a keyword search. Or search your online public library catalog. If you have a theme in mind and can take the time to read through the descriptions in the catalog, you can sometimes get an idea of whether or not a book might work. I know that to write the Links, Noell spends a lot of time reading books that DON’T work but they may work for another Sunday down the road. Hope this helps.
Ann Knox
Thx Ann. I also use Amazon, the library and even Google
Will look into joining Horn Book online
Of course I use your site and recommend it a lot. We have a blog thecece.org and a page under my Facebook called Making the Christ Connection. Am pleased to have made a connection with you.
In Christ, c
Catherine, I also try to peruse different blogs and websites that have write-ups on books… a couple I found quickly through my bookmarks bar are below. Ann’s right when she says I read a lot we don’t use. I browse online for several hours before heading to libraries, then usually end up coming home with several grocery bags full of books, then whiddle that down to three… it’s always a lucky moment when I can remember a book I’ve read and discarded before and find it perfect for a text I’m working on in the moment.
http://www.childrensliteraturenetwork.org
http://booklistonline.com
http://teachwithpicturebooks.blogspot.com
http://www.jacketflap.com
http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/about/collections.asp
thx so much
Holy and blessed Easter to you and yours