Christmas Book Countdown, Week Three: A Jolly Christmas at the Patterprints

Would you think I was crazy if I told you I wait all year to read this book. Yes? OK, then, let's just say that once we wrap up all the books for our Christmas Book Countdown, I get very excited to read this one again (in fact, when I realized it was teed up for an evening I wouldn't be home, I unwrapped it and switched it with another book!)



A Jolly Christmas at the Patterprints tells the story of ol' Lije Herringbone, the Tramp Rat's first Christmas.





Lije runs to the Patterprints' house when he becomes frightened by Santa in the woods.

When Santa comes down the chimney, he has an unfortunate encounter with a pot of soup simmering over the fire and mayhem ensues, but all ends happily.

Both the language and the illustrations are completely delightful. The characters lend themselves well to different accents, if you enjoy reading to your children with a lot of dramatic emphasis.

Written and illustrated by the mother-daughter duo Vera and Helene Nyce early last century, the book was not published until it was rediscovered by Parents' Magazine in 1971.

We found our copy when cleaning out C's grandparents' house after they moved to Florida several years ago, but there are at least two copies available on Better World Books for about $4 each. I definitely recommend you snap one up so you can anticipate reading this wonderful story all year, er, December, too!