"Wrapped" Attention

I have the challenge (every other week) of reading to a mixed group of 3-6 year-olds. Many of them are chatty or squirmy or both. So it was something of a Christmas miracle when two books we read this week had them completely (well, almost) still and silent for the entire book.

The Christmas Blizzard by Helen Ketteman is told by an old-timer remembering a Christmas of his childhood when Santa had to use the town as a base camp. The illustrations by James Warhola pack the pages with intricately drawn, and funny, details. The preschoolers were delighted when a strong wind picked up a house to reveal a man taking a bath. But as my son noted, "You can't even see his private parts." 

Grumpy Badger's Christmas by Paul Bright and Jane Chapman was also a crowd-pleaser. The kids liked making the sound effects on each page that were loud enough to wake any hibernating creature. And what's not to love in a character that stores enough homemade lemonade to last him through the winter?