"I know nothing is impossible on Christmas Eve in a lighthouse."
The weather is wild. Christmas is approaching. Kate has made her Christmas wish but will the Lighthouse Santa be able to fly in these conditions? During the night Kate is woken by her father shouting about a shipwreck. Sam, Kate's older brother, and her father head out into the night.
"The wind sounds like a thousand seagulls shrieking."
Eventually Sam and Dad arrive home with a man and a small girl. She is wearing a red cap with a white fur pom pom. It's the Lighthouse Santa, Mr Snow, and his daughter Dolly. The two girls talk about their different lives. One in a town and one in a lighthouse. Dolly is impressed to see Kate has the biggest night light in the world. The weather clears and Mr Snow invites Kate to join him with Dolly to deliver the rest of the Christmas presents. But what did Kate wish for?
"Don't you know Lighthouse Santa already bought exactly what I wished for?' I say.
'He did?' she asks.
I nod. 'All I ever wanted was a friend."
"Nothing is impossible on Christmas Eve in a lighthouse."
I know Christmas is far away (well around 120 sleeps) but this book is also about Lighthouses! and friends and the setting is Maine. So many of my favourite things in just one book. Oh and I should also mention this is based on a true story. Edward Rowe Snow really did fly Christmas gifts out to the children living in remote lighthouses from 1936 for fifty years.
Here are the actual lighthouses mentioned in the story:
Great Point Lighthouse Nantucket
Owls Head Lighthouse Maine
Brant Point Lighthouse Nantucket
Sankaty Head Lighthouse
West Chop Lighthouse Martha's Vineyard
I am adding to this post from September (it is now the end of November) because I have just discovered another beautiful and very moving picture book about a different flying Santa - William Wincapaw who flew Christmas packages to lights in Maine's Penobscot Bay starting in 1929 and continuing to the present.
Sadly this book is out of print but if you can find copy it is a beautiful Christmas book which you could share with an older child.
Frances, Peter and their father have moved out to Ledge Light which is on an isolated island. Christmas is just two days away. Peter is desperate for Christmas with all the trimmings but Frances worries.
"But she wasn't sure that Santa knew where Ledge Light was, here in the middle of the ocean. When Mama died in spring, Papa had taken the transferred from the mainland lighthouse. Had Santa noticed?"
Frances has another worry - their food supplies are running out and Papa has become so remote. It is decided the children should return to the mainland for Christmas but then the weather turns bad. Papa has to leave Frances in charge of the light while he goes out in the wild storm to rescue a fisherman. Frances realises she and her brother cannot leave the lighthouse. They are a lighthouse family. Their father needs them. Frances is a problem solver. She decides they can improvise and still celebrate Christmas but just as they begin to sing around the old piano they hear a small plane overhead.
"A package fell out of the tail and landed at the water's edge. Inside was a thick later of marsh hay wrapped around a heavy burlap sack."
Inside the parcel there are real treasures - food, coffee, cocoa, crayons, books and two yo-yos.
Here is an interview with the author Toni Buzzeo. I have now discovered Nancy Carpenter is the illustrator of one of my favourite books - Little Bear's Little Boat.
No comments:
Post a Comment