holidays

It’s Time For Holi!

Holi is a popular Indian festival that takes place at the end of the winter season. The celebration of Holi brings people closer together. During Holi, people welcome spring by throwing colored water or powder on one another. This story begins during the winter season, with a boy who is anxiously waiting for spring and the celebration of Holi to begin. When Holi day finally arrives, he can’t wait to celebrate. He decides to use his colored powders– before his family and friends arrive! As he explores the different colored powders, he starts to relate the colors to what he sees happening in nature during springtime. Through his own exploration, he learns more about the significance of this colorful festival.

See the review at WOW Review, Volume 8, Issue 3

The Remembering Day

Long ago in what would come to be called Mexico, as Mama Alma and her granddaughter, Bella, recall happy times while walking in the garden they have tended together since Bella was a baby, Mama Alma asks that after she is gone her family remember her on one special day each year. Includes facts about The Remembering Day, El dia de los muertos.

Hip, Hip, Hooray, It’s Monsoon Day!

A girl and her family in the Southwest celebrates San Juan’s Day, June 24, the day when the summer rainstorms traditionally begin.

Half A Man

From a young age, Michael was both fascinated by and afraid of his grandfather. Grandpa’s ship was torpedoed during the Second World War, leaving him with terrible burns. Every time he came to stay, Michael was warned by his mother that he must not stare, he must not make too much noise, he must not ask Grandpa any questions about his past. As he grows older, Michael stays with his grandfather during the summer holidays and learns the story behind Grandpa’s injuries, finally getting to know the real man behind the solemn figure from his childhood. Michael can see beyond the burns, and this gives him the power to begin healing scars that have divided his family for so long.

Featured in WOW Review Volume X, Issue 1.

’twas Nochebuena

It’s Christmas Eve, and you’re invited to a Nochebuena celebration! Follow a family as they prepare to host a night filled with laughter, love, and Latino tradition. Make tasty tamales and hang colorful adornos (decorations) on the walls. Gather to sing festive canciones (songs) while sipping champurrado (hot chocolate). After the midnight feast has been served and the last gifts have been unwrapped, it’s time to cheer, “Feliz Navidad and to all a good night!” Latin American traditions for celebrating Christmas Eve in a text that combines English and Spanish words and follows the rhythm of Clement Moore’s “The Night Before Christmas”.

Scaredy Squirrel Halloween

A quirky safety guide combines practical tips with step-by-step instructions featuring an anxious Scaredy Squirrel, who prepares himself for the worst during the spookiest night of the year.

The Christmas Eve Ghost

Two children find goodwill and acceptance in unexpected places even in the hardest of times in a moving tale from a master picturebook creator. In 1930s Liverpool, where streetcars clang on iron tracks, young Bronwen and Dylan live with their widowed Mam. Every day, in the wee hours of morning, Mam leaves the two alone as she gathers other people’s laundry to boil in a big metal copper at home. At night, if she’s not too tired, Mam tells fanciful tales of dragons and ghosties, and on Sunday, she cautions the children about the O’Rileys next door, who go to a church that is not for their kind. But on Christmas Eve, when Mam must go out, Bronwen and Dylan hear a ghostly plonk! plonk! plonk! from the washroom that sends them running straight into the arms of Mrs. O’Riley. Not only do they find that the house next door harbors nothing to fear, but it may hold a blessing for Mam, too. With evocative drawings full of compelling detail, Shirley Hughes tells a timeless, genuine tale of community and human kindness.