A homeless parent and child welcome an elderly person in even greater need into their makeshift shelter on Christmas Eve. Would pair extremely well with the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath. ( )

This book can be used to teach students the importance of being kind to others despite your current living/financial situation. ( )

December is a beautiful book about a boy and his mother who live in a cardboard house. It's Christmas Eve and they have just the tip of a real tree with various found objects as ornaments, two cookies for Santa that Simon saved up a lot of cans for, and one picture of an angle on the wall ripped from a calendar that they named December. Despite having very little, Simon and his mother take in an old woman from the cold and even lets her have one of the cookies. The next morning she is gone, but outside Simon sees the angel from their picture standing outside their home. After that, their luck picks up.

This is a very sweet book about a very sensitive but serious topic with beautiful illustrations. ( )

Loved this, and love Eve Bunting. She always chooses such unusual, sensitive topics for children's books. This one is about a special Christmas Eve (with a bit of a Christmas miracle) that a boy celebrates with his mother in the cardboard box in which they live. Not fake, not cheesy. Well done. ( )

This book would be good for students to read when talking about diversity. It shows that you can be happy even when you do not have much. I think students will like this story because of the mother and sons relationship and their happiness even in hard circumstances. ( )