Over the past few years I have shared twelve books of Christmas as we count down to the big day. This year I will begin with one of the best Australian Christmas stories - Wombat Divine by Mem Fox illustrated by Kerry Argent. In 2019 Wombat Divine turned 25! If you click the link below the cover you can read more about this book.
I am in love with this book. (I can hear my mother tut-tutting: ‘Boasting again, are we?’) It obeys my favourite maxims, which are that in any good story ‘character is everything’ and ‘only trouble is interesting.’ Whenever I read it aloud I almost always have a lump in my throat towards the end when dear old stage-struck wombat hangs his head and hopes he won’t cry. I also like the very gentle religious reminder to return Jesus to the centre of the Christmas story, which is missing from many Christmas books. And I like the way I played with the two meanings for ‘divine’. Mem Fox
In the US and UK the cover is different:
I had a plan to focus this year on books with an Australian flavour but I am not sure I will have twelve of these so I may pop in a couple of other (non Australian) Christmas books too.
You might like to begin with a quick look at my previous Christmas offerings. You can click the label Christmas in my sidebar or dip into one of these links:
Truffle's Christmas by Anna Currey This is close to being my favourite Christmas book to read aloud to a group of young children
2018 Twelve Books of Christmas bonus post - 24 titles
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