PICTURE BOOK - Aunt Olga's Christmas Postcards by Kevin Major

Illustrated by Bruce Roberts

2005, A Groundwood Book, House of Anansi Press, Toronto & Berkeley

Out-of-print

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 3.91 - 22 ratings

My rating: 4.5

Endpapers: Red striped background with collage of antique Christmas postcards

Illustrations:  Facsimiles of oodles and oodles of vintage postcards.  Drawings of Aunt Olga and the little girl look like pen and ink and watercolors.

1^st line/s:  "Great-great Aunt Olga is ninety-five.  She calls herself a nonagenarian!  We all think the world of her."

My comments:  This is a wonderfully special book for me.  It's about Christmas and poetry and aging and familial grandparent-type/child relationship.  Its about memories and art and poems that both rhyme and don't rhyme.  There's quite a bit of text, but not so much that snuggling with a child older than a toddler and a gingerbread cookie wouldn't remedy!

Goodreads:  Anna’s great-aunt Olga has collected Christmas postcards all her life. She’s ninety-five, and many of the cards are very old. The holidays are the perfect time for Aunt Olga to share her postcards and her memories with her favorite niece. Decked out in red, Aunt Olga is ready for fun as she teaches Anna how to write her very own Christmas rhymes. Written with warmth and humor, this lovely story is a perfect starting point for discussions of the “olden days”, as well as a charming introduction to the joys of collecting.

The Boy Who Loved Words - Roni Schotter

Illustrated by Giselle Potter
Schwartz & Wade Books, 2006
32 pages
Rating: 4.5
Front endpapers: cut-out words on light green
Back endpapers: Glossary of the many scrumptious words italicized throughout the book

Selig was a collector of words. He wrote all the great words he heard on a piece of paper and stuffed it in a pocket, in his sock, under his collar. But when he heard one of his peers call him an "oddball," he had a strange dream that sent him out into the world to find his purpose.

While doing so, he also found love. So upon his return home, still a young man, his parents were terribly happy for him.

Words are "cut" and dropped all over the pages. Lots of great words are italicized throughout the story.

I can think of oodles and oodles of activities to do with this including: class list of LUSCIOUS WORDS, laminate great words and tie by strings to trees around town, word mobiles, make a word potpouri - choose and use....

There's a Teacher's Guide at the Teachers at Random website.

Rocks in His Head - Carol Otis Hurst

Illustrated by James Stevenson
Greenwillow/Harcourt
2001
Rating: 4
Endpapers: Creamy pink

"Some people collect stamps. Some people collect coins or dolls or bottle caps. When he was a boy, my father collected rocks. When he wasn't doing chores at home or learning at school, he'd walk along stone walls and around old quarries, looking for rocks. People said he had rocks n his pockets and rocks in his head. He didn't mind. It was usually true."

This wonderfully told memoir includes a little history about the Depression, a little information about collecting, and the story of a man whose passion turns into a living - the true story of how a man with no college education - but a huge love of learning - can become a curator at a museum. Super.