31 months - the illustrations are beautiful. I'm not sure this is so much a story as an account of one little girl's Christmas traditions. Everyone celebrates in their own way and it's fun to see how others celebrate. A good compare and contrast. ( )

This is a warm, heart-felt story. A young girl living with her grandparents in the country describes the events leading up to Christmas. She tells the audience that in the summer she sits on the swing, during spring, picks apples and during winter she prepares for Christmas. She and her grandparents work together to prepare for the holiday. They go to church on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day to celebrate the true meaning of this holiday. They also celebrate this time of year with other family members and friends. The story is very descriptive, that you can almost imagine all the events taking place. I would use this book with 3-5 year olds. There aren't too many words in it. The theme if the book is loving one's family. Christmas is not about the material things. It's about spending time with your loved ones. ( )

Beautiful story and illustrations. A favorite of mine! ( )

Christmas in the Country, written by Cynthia Rylant and illustrated by Diane Goode, tells a story about a young girl who lives with her grandparents in the country. She loves different things about each season, but she especially loves the winter season, namely because of Christmas. In the story, the family's Christmas traditions and rituals are shared in a comedic and entertaining way. I liked this book because it reminds me of what is great about the holiday season: family. One way I would use this text in my own classroom would be to discuss symbols. This book talks about each season and what they are represented by, so this would be a great book to use for symbol explanations and developing students own symbols. ( )

A little girl who lives with her grandparents in the country cannot await Christmas Eve. She helps her grandparents to prepare everything, decorate the tree and writes a note to Santa what she wishes for.
A very nice book that may satisfy children who cannot await Christmas and as we all can remember when being a child the time before Christmas seems to last forever. When reading this book you can literally feel the calm and tranquil atmosphere around Christmas and it hopefully will push aside the hectic and busy time we have to face at Christmas. ( )