Tag Archive | The Gingerbread Cafe

Christmas Etc In Brief and Delayed

So much went on over our Christmas unit but I have to share a few resources…

Snowflakes are all sorts of awesome. So we had to look into them a little. For books we used:

  • The Story of Snow by Mark Cassino
  • Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
  • My Brother Loved Snowflakes by Mary Bahr
  • Snowflakes Fall by Patricia MacLachlan and Steven Kellogg
  • Snowfllakes by Martha E.H. Rustad

For Christmas this year we went from nursery rhymes to Christmas carols. Origins and meanings are so interesting! To help us out I found two books:

  • The Carols of Christmas by Ideals Publications
  • Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas by Ace Collins

We read a few favorites… The Gingerbread Man, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, A Porcupine in a Pine Tree (a Canadian 12 days of Christmas), Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. The list goes on. 

What I really wanted to share was the idea of finding out a little history about the things we say and sing. Delving into the history of Christmas Carols made us stop and think about how long they had been around, why they appeared, how symbolism has changed. Christmas is a great time to look at the root of things, and to revisit old favourites. For more examples look at our Nursery Rhyme Posts. (a delayed one with that too, they will be linked)IMG_20171204_105716_262

The Bookshop on the Corner… a book review

Right off the bat I have say the author of The Bookshop on the Corner, Rebecca Raisin has an amazing talent for creating whimsical imagery. I want to share two of my favourites:

“I imagined the books exhaling, stretching their binding, as they relaxed, not on show any more. And once I left for the night, I pictured them moving around the shop, their pages fluttering, as if they’d come to life. Until morning, where I’d walk in and find them not quite where I’d left them the previous night.”

“Most booksellers frowned upon dog-earing a book, but that was how you knew it was special. It had lived, and been reincarnated again with another owner; there were notes on the margins, and words highlighted. With a book like that, when you gently pried open the cover you could hear whispers from the past float out from the pages.”

She won me over with these passages but kept me there with lovely bookseller in her tiny quiet store and the travelling reporter who fell in love at first sight. You spend the book following along sweet Sarah Smith as she visits with her friends, runs her bookstore and falls in love with the dashing Ridge Warner. Is it storybook perfect or too good to be true?

This is a wonderful novella and part of a series I know I will keep an eye peeled for! It works as a standalone or within a series, added bonus! So look for “The Bookshop Series” or “The Gingerbread Cafe Series.”21796832