Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Willy and May: A Christmas Story - Judy Schachner

For: Kids 5 and up (a lot of text)
Published: 1995
Rating: 4.5
For Caroline and Andrew
Endpapers: oops, forgot to write it down and it's wrapped and ready to be sent
Told in 1st person as a memoir

This story ends at the holiday season, but tells of the loving relationship between a young girl and her great aunt through the years. They only get to visit twice a year, but correspond with each other at other times. Aunt May is interesting and a bit eccentric, her best friend is a little bird named Willy, who spends most of the time atop her head. There is lots of text, lots of story, building to the year that the girl's mother gets sick and they can't visit Aunt May in the summer OR at Christmas, so this year, Aunt May and Willy come to visit THEM. There's a cute ending full of the magic of Christmastime.

Beautiful watercolor illustrations framed with a blue line are detailed and full-of-fun. I wish I could think of a better description for this type of art - I really love it. Not really "whimsical", not really "folksy" or "folky"....I guess I must come up with my own descriptor. I'll mull it over....

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