The Family Read-Aloud Holiday Treasury

Grades 1-4

With over 60 poems, songs, and story excerpts, this compilation celebrates 30 of our best known holidays along with other less sanctioned reasons for joy such as friendship and summer vacation.

The book opens with three exuberant poems “Celebrating Me” and then moves to New Year’s Day and on through the year with each successive holiday. There is good variety to the collection, ranging from Jean Fritz’s “George Washington’s Breakfast” to selections by John Ciardi, Nikki Giovanni, Beverly Cleary, and Laura Ingalls Wilder. Great care has been taken to maintain cultural diversity. Using pastels and watercolor, Brown’s distinctive cartoons bring life, humor, and energy to every page, whether the selection is an old favorite or a new acquaintance. The book concludes with condensed historical insights into each holiday.

–Martha Topol, Interlochen Public Library, MI