Skip to main content

Happy Narwhalidays

 


Happy Narwhalidays 
By Ben Clanton 
Tundra Books, 2020. 68 pages. 

There are a couple of reasons that this is one of my favorite new holiday books this year. First of all, it is another Narwhal and Jelly book full of wonderful stories and illustrations about two fantastic characters that my family and I have just fallen in love with over the past few years. Second, there is one particular story that just melts my heart. In the book Jelly wants to get Narwhal a gift…but is not sure what to give. Jelly puts together a gift box with “Narwhal” on it…and tries to figure out just what to put in the box. Narwhal sees the box and is so excited but decides to not open it since really the best gift is the one that isn’t opened since you can imagine that it is anything. Also, it is all about how Narwhal is just grateful for Jelly being such a good friend. 

If you know readers who love graphic novels, good characters who are amazing, and best friends who like doing things for each other during the holiday season, then this is one book that you should not miss. So good! Plus, as an added bonus there is a Merry Mermicorn that comes and brings gifts. Such holiday fun! Really, you should all read this one! 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Stand Tall by Joan Bauer

Stand Tall By Siena Siegel by Joan Bauer Putnam, 2002, 182 pgs Realistic Fiction Tree is 12 years old and over 6 feet tall. That would be great if he were a basketball player, but he is not. Dealing with his unusual size is not Tree's only challenge. Tree's parents have recently gone through a divorce, and his grandfather has had his leg amputated as the result of an old Vietnam War injury. The strength of this book is the characterizations. All of the main characters are dimensional and sympathetic. Bauer sets the characters in real and often funny family situations. Best of all is the character of Tree. He is boy with a heart to match his stature. This is a great book for boys or girls ages 9-12, as a read aloud or for individual reading. This book could also be a good Rx book for children whose families are going through divorce, or for anyone who feels like they don't fit in.

Review: Cincinnati Lee, Curse Breaker

  Cincinnati Lee, Curse Breaker By Heidi Heilig New York: Greenwillow Books, 2025. Fiction. 291 pages. Thanks to Cincinnati Lee's no good, dirty rotten, artifact stealing great great great grandfather, Cincinnati's family is now cursed and Cincinnati feels like it's up to her to break the curse. Which involves trying to steal the artifacts back from museums that her grandfather robbed from graves and archeological sites around the world and return them to their countries of origin. But when Cincinnati's first artifact stealing mission goes awry, she decides it might be more effective to steal an all-powerful artifact herself that she can use to break the curse - The Spear of Destiny. Unfortunately her race for the spear will pit her against art smugglers and thieves intent on finding the ancient artifact themselves. If you are looking for an Indiana Jones read-alike, this is the perfect for you! Heavy on the adventure with similar levels of mysticism to those seen in th...

Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...