Season’s Readings! Create memories with your family by snuggling up in front of the fire with hot chocolate and a good book! Your library has holiday stories that appeal to all ages and reading levels. Visit one of our 15 locations today to check out a featured Book Corner read or browse our shelves for other festive favorites!
Youth
Make the season magical for little ones with these sweet picture books.
The 13th Day of Christmas by Adam Rex
In this adorable take on the classic Christmas song, a bewildered man turns the increasingly bizarre (and huge!) presents from his true love into a gift to the community—parades! circuses! fundraisers!—only to later find out it was all an online shopping error! You’ll love the twist at the end as much as the cute pictures.
The Midnight Visitors by Juliet David
Miriam was glad to be warm and cozy. There were so many people in the town, but it was nice and peaceful inside her cowshed. Little did she know that soon she would be joined by “midnight visitors”… and not just any old visitors!
Beginning readers will enjoy these books about joyous holiday celebrations.
Is It Hanukkah Yet? by Nancy E. Krulik
This sweet depiction of Hanukkah is perfect for early readers! Follow an excited little girl from waiting for sunset and the fun to begin, through songs, games, presents, and more, all the way to bedtime and waiting for seven more nights of Hanukkah!
Kwanzaa by Rebecca Pettiford
Using clear language and pairing it with simple real-life pictures, this non-fiction book is great for young readers who are curious about the holiday of Kwanzaa as well as those who celebrate it but are just beginning to read! It includes a description of the holiday, some of the symbols frequently used, and even has a picture glossary!
These humorous chapter books full of holiday hijinks will keep kids entertained.
No-Good Nine by John Bemelmans Marciano
After years of being skipped over at Christmas, nine of the worst kids ever go on a quest to the North Pole to let Santa know just how unfair the system is. They’ll get there even if they have to lie, cheat, steal, or ride on a dogsled! And Santa better watch out when they do!
Benny Ramírez and the Nearly Departed by Jose Paul Iriarte
Benny’s Abuelo wasn’t the greatest person, but when his ghost appears with a plea for help and a New Year’s Eve deadline to do some good in the world, Benny finds himself the focus of a crazy musical plot to help him rock the arts school he attends with his gifted siblings. Can Grandpa’s ghost turn Benny into a world class trumpet player before New Year’s Eve and save Benny’s grade—and Abuelo’s afterlife? Or is this a scheme too far?
Winter According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney
Told from the perspective of a class hamster, this lighthearted chapter book celebrates the winter season with the ever-classic school holiday tradition—the winter pageant! The kids in Humphrey the Hamster’s second grade class are putting on a Winter Wonderland pageant—learning songs, dances, making costumes, and even figuring out how to play the piano! Humphrey wants to participate, too, but the music teacher is afraid of animals! Can the kids in his class find a way to include him?
TWEENS AND TEENS
These books will get your teens into the holiday spirit. They may even bake some seasonal treats!
All I Want for Christmas by Wendy Loggia
Bailey Briggs is counting down the days to Christmas! She lives for holiday music, baking cookies, going on snowy sleigh rides, and wearing her light-up reindeer ears to work at Winslow’s bookstore. But all she really wants this year is the one thing she doesn’t have…someone special to kiss under the mistletoe. And she’s 100 percent certain that that someone isn’t Jacob Marley—athlete, player, and with questionable taste in girlfriends—and that Charlie, the mysterious stranger with the British accent, is the romantic lead of her dreams. Is she right?
My Especially Weird Week with Tess by Anna Woltz
Eleven-year-old Sam is spending the holidays with his family on the Dutch island of Texel, but no one is having fun. His older brother has broken his ankle, his mum is plagued by migraines, and the morbidly imaginative Sam decides to prepare for the day his family might die by practicing loneliness. But when 12-year-old whirlwind Tess catapults herself into his life, Sam’s only option is to follow her lead. Tess wants to find her father, who doesn’t even know she exists. Together they come up with an especially weird plan to lure him onto the island for one week, discovering the joy of living and the meaning of family along the way.
Christmas Cooking by Rebecca Gilpin
Get baking with this wonderful book full of delicious seasonal recipes, including much-loved favorites and fun new ideas to keep tweens and teens happily occupied during the exciting weeks before Christmas. Recipes include chocolate truffles, cheesy Christmas stars, and coconut mice, and they are illustrated with easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions. Also, learn gift-wrapping ideas and ways to make delicious treats into wonderful Christmas gifts.
