Santa Calls by William Joyce

Children's Santa story. This is a very touching story about a little girl that writes a letter to Santa and all she wants for Christmas is for her older brother to be her friend. Santa sends them a box that makes a flying machine that takes them all to the North Pole where they battle Dark Elves and use their inventions to help them and in the end, the little girl is friends with her brother. And the brother still never knows the reason for the adventure. This is a 10-15 minute read aloud book but there is a lot of action to keep them involved and fabulous storytelling through pictures. Both my children liked it and I think that the Santa theme is a perennial favorite if you don't mind perpetuating that myth with your children.

Anansi and the Magic Stick by Eric A. Kimmel

This is a great kids book and the Anansi stories are wonderful! I love them so much and this author is great in my opinion. This is a great story of a trickster and his trickiness and sometimes that is a hard concept for kids to grasp with the word. Plus, this is the first book that a spider was in that my kids actually liked! Janet Stevens illustrated this book and the pictures are vivid and a very good description of what is actually happening in the story. All the kids enjoyed this book. It is about a 10-15 minute story reading aloud so be aware of that before you agree to three bedtime stories including this one - LOL.

Going North by Janice N. Harrington

This is a children's book. It is about an African-American family in the 1960's moving from the South to the North to try and find some better opportunities for themselves and their families. This book is written from the oldest daughter's perspective. I truly liked this book. It had a good rhythm with the words which lends itself really well to reading aloud. It also introduced good ideas about discrimination in a non-offensive way and not too hard for small children to understand and relate to. The pictures were wonderful and fuzzy and my kids spent plenty of time imagining what was really in those pictures.