12 Days of Christmas – Mom Read It

Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK. How did that sneak up so fast? If you’re spending the holidays with family, you don’t want to show up empty-handed, right? And if you have kids in your family, you may be that sort of guest that likes to bring a book. (It’s not just me, is it?) Here are a few holiday books to get kids ready for Christmas:

The Twelve Days of Christmas (Panorama Pops), Illustrated by Grahame Baker-Smith,
(Sept. 2017, Candlewick Press), $8.99, ISBN: 978-0-7636-9485-2
Perfect for ANY age!

How adorable is this itty bitty gift book? It comes in its own little slipcase, and opens to a pop-up, beautifully illustrated panoramic reading of the classic Christmas carol. There’s a brief explanation of the 12 days in the beginning of the book, which was news to me. I’ve spent the last *cough cough* decades thinking my birthday kicked off the 12 days of Christmas, but the days are actually from the 25th, Christmas Day, to the Epiphany, on January 5th. (I bet my parents are thrilled about that Catholic school tuition money.) There’s a note about the song’s origins; the words dating back to 1780, the music to 1909. Sing along with the kiddos, and then sing a fun take on the carol, like my son’s favorite, The Twelve Bots of Christmas! This one will take a beating in a public library – this one is great for storytime reference, but you’re taking matters into your own hands if you put this in circulation.

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt (Snow Globe Edition), by Michael Rosen/Illustrated by Helen Oxbury,
(Oct. 2017, Candlewick Press), $16.99, ISBN: 9781536200294
Great for all ages, but perfect for readers 3-7

This is such a fun update of a storytime classic! The cover is a 3-D, plastic-encased snow globe, with little styrofoam balls to shake up and down and all around. This version of the story features die-cut and pop-up that will add to all of your splashing and sploshing, squelching, and squerching. I’m reading this one, along with Over the River: The Turkey’s Tale at my Thanksgiving storytime next week, and I can’t wait to see the kids’ faces when I show off the snow globe. Again, this one is great for gifts and storytime reference, but circulating librarians, be ware.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas (Sing Along With Me!), Illustrated by Yu-hsuan Huang,
(Sept. 2017, Nosy Crow/Candlewick), $8.99, ISBN: 978-0-7636-9612-2
Great for all ages, but the board book is perfect for 2-5

Another illustrated Christmas carol, this time in board book form! Sing along with adorable animal friends as they get ready to celebrate Christmas, and scan the QR code in the book for a free, downloadable version of the song. There are five fun sliders, one on each spread, that let little hands peek at little buddies hiding behind a Christmas tree, pop up snowmen, slide a cat and mouse team down a hill, open a home to visiting friends, and watch Santa fly by. This book is way too much fun, and it’s nice and sturdy: built to last repeated uses. Put this one in your board book collections, you’re all good!

I wrote a piece on tabletop gaming for WhatchaReading recently, that’s received some great feedback. I thought I’d post the article here, too, especially with a lot of my readers being librarians and parents, and get some more input.

My 11 year-old son, Alex, and I hang out a lot together. I introduced him to Doctor Who, the Batman ’66 TV series, and Batman’s The Killing Joke; he introduced me to tabletop gaming. We’d played Clue, Monopoly, and Trouble until I thought I was going to weep, and even though we learned how to play Magic a few years ago at New York Comic Con, one game could get so bogged down that I kind of shied away from gaming. That changed last Christmas, when my brother-in-law gave Alex Munchkin, the card game where you loot the treasures, kill the monsters, and stab your buddy. He was immediately hooked. Next thing I knew, he was an authority in the making on tabletop gaming. He introduced me to Wil Wheaton’s TableTop web series. He collected different Munchkin games. We went to New York Comic Con together, and he showed me Fluxx, King of New York, and other tabletop games. We went home and played Munchkin with my 15 year-old, and we had a blast. I was hooked.

Many Munchkin games later, we’ve expanded to include Cthulhu Fluxx, Machi Koro, Sushi Go, and We Didn’t Playtest This At All. We go at each other, talking smack and trying to trip each other up, laughing and talking about everything – school, books, crazy members of the family – as we go along. Tabletop gaming has given me a great way to tighten my relationship with my kid as he enters – shudder – puberty; it’s “our thing”: something that’s for us, we have together. Alex is a gamer, not really a talker, but if we’re playing Machi Koro, and something’s on his mind, it’ll come up as we’re stealing one another’s resources to build our city. If his brothers are driving him crazy, I’ll hear about it as he’s attacking a monster during a round of Munchkin. He’s relaxed. I’m relaxed. If we can defeat Cthulhu and find the Necronomicon, dealing with a 2 year-old who’s sticking fruit snacks in your hair is a piece of cake.

Alex’s influence has spread to my library, where I just started a Tabletop Gaming club. Our first session, I had six kids and a parent show up to play another Fluxx game, Oz Fluxx. These kids had a BLAST. It exceeded my wildest hopes, because I haven’t had a lot of geekery catch fire with the kids at the library these days. When I finished the “learning round”, as I called the first game, they immediately asked for another round. I handed off the deck to the dad who sat in, who was more than happy to take over as game leader.

Gaming works. It gets kids thinking strategically, using numbers, words, reasoning. It helps them plan, it helps them understand cause and effect. Candyland and Chutes and Ladders, TiddlyWinks, Break the Ice – start playing with the little ones early. You can start when they’re about 3. But when they’re as young as 5, you can start teaching them Magic – it’s how Alex became more comfortable with numbers as a Kindergartener. I have a 6 year old in my Fluxx group at the library, and she was the kid who won the game. Her proud dad was the dad who joined my group, and he can’t wait until next week, when the group meets again. Gaming brings people together, so why wouldn’t it bring parents and kids together? It’s one of the few times they can oppose you without grief, right?

Now I’m scouring Kickstarter for new games to bring home, and to my library. I’ve got 3 in the hopper now: Gryphon Games’ 12 Days of Christmas and King’s Kilt, and Exploding Kittens, by Ellan Lee, Shane Small, and The Oatmeal’s Matthew Inman. Which also happens to be the most-backed Kickstarter EVER. Once I get these, I’ll make sure to report back.