Sherri L. Smith | The Children’s Book Review | October 22, 2015
Written by Kate Milford
Illustrated by Jaime Zollars
This should become a holiday favorite. The atmosphere is perfect, the story is a delight. You’ll want to live inside this House for a while.
Ages 10-12 | Clarion Books | 2014 | 978-0544052703
Written by Charles Dickens
This seems like a cliché but a lot of people have not read this book. I am still in love with the moment in which Dickens professes to be a spirit standing beside you, the reader. Awesome in both senses of the word!
Ages 12 and up | Sterling | 2009 | 978-1402766909
Written by
Illustrated by Maurice Sendak
Translated by Ralph Manheim
Reading this book as a kid inspired me to write The Toymaker’s Apprentice. This version is fantastic because it mixes Sendak’s weirdly wonderful art with Hoffman’s wonderfully weird words. It’s beautiful, exciting, bizarre and just plain fun—every childhood will benefit from a dose of odd wonder.
Ages 4 and up | Publisher: Crown | Oct. 30, 2012 (Reprint) | ISBN-13: 978-0385348645
Written by Susan Cooper
This second book in the Dark is Rising Sequence. It takes place at Christmas and it’s haunting and wonderful. The use of Good King Wenceslas as a metaphor and a spell is powerful indeed.
Ages 10-12 | Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books | 1999 (Reprint) | ISBN-13: 978-0689829833
Written by Clement C. Moore
Illustrated by Robert Ingpen
When my nieces and nephew were little, I bought a version of this book from the Hallmark store that allowed me to record my voice reading each page aloud. They loved it. To this day, at Christmas, they will pull it out and listen (even if I’m sitting right there). While the poem itself is a classic, the combination of the story and my voice is pure holiday magic.
Ages 4-7 | Publisher: Sterling | 2010 | ISBN-13: 978-1402781827
About Sherri Smith
Sherri L. Smith is the author of several novels for young adults, including the critically acclaimed Flygirl and Orleans. She lives in Los Angeles, California.
www.sherrilsmith.com | Twitter
Written by Sherri L. Smith
Publisher’s Synopsis: A gorgeously imagined Nutcracker retelling from award-winning author making her middle-grade debut.
Stefan Drosselmeyer is a reluctant apprentice to his toymaker father until the day his world is turned upside down. His father is kidnapped and Stefan is enlisted by his mysterious cousin, Christian Drosselmeyer, to find a mythical nut to save a princess who has been turned into a wooden doll. Embarking on a wild adventure through Germany, Stefan must save Boldavia’s princess and his own father from the fanatical Mouse Queen and her seven-headed Mouse Prince, both of whom have sworn to destroy the Drosselmeyer family.
Ages 10 and up | Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers | 2015 | ISBN-13: 978-0399252952
Follow all the stops on the tour!
The Book Smugglers – 10/12
Novel Novice – 10/13
Owl for YA – 10/14
The Compulsive Reader – 10/15
Teen Librarian Toolbox – 10/16
Green Bean Teen Queen – 10/19
Kid Lit Frenzy – 10/20
Great Imaginations – 10/21
The Children’s Book Review – 10/22
Word Spelunking – 10/23
Sherri L. Smith, author of The Toymaker’s Apprentice, selected these five holiday book favorites. Discover more articles on The Children’s Book Review tagged with Family Favorites, Anna Kang and Christopher Weyant.