A fun Christmas picturebook with a message about staying positive. The animals living in Rainbow Mews are disappointed to find that their beloved old Christmas tree is no longer up to surviving another festive season. Struggling to source the perfect replacement, the little cast of animals find themselves thinking outside the box to create a wonderful solution to reclaiming their festive cheer instead. An uplifting, appealing and original Christmas story suitable for KS1 and reception.
A cross between a Christmas story and an advent calendar, this charming hardback book is structured into 24½ chapters – one for each day of advent. Each day’s offering includes the next chapter of the story and easy-to-follow instructions for an accompanying craft to make or activity to try.
Winston is a little mouse who finds himself caught up in a special adventure with a festive theme. When Winston stumbles across a lost letter addressed to Father Christmas, he makes it his mission to deliver the letter to the North Pole in time for Christmas. It’s not an easy expedition, but along the way Winston is helped by a cast of generous friends and helpful strangers. This is a heart-warming story that celebrates simple acts of kindness towards other people and together with the craft activities it makes a wonderful book for families, groups or school classes to enjoy exploring together in the run-up to Christmas.
This book presents the traditional nativity story from a Christian perspective, showing how the baby in the manger was a special king that had been promised from years before in order to bring hope, forgiveness and peace. With striking illustrations and an easy to follow storyline, The Christmas Promise is a book for exploring how the story of the birth of Jesus fits into the wider Christian narrative of the Bible.
Perfect for those looking for a festive story that does not explicitly mention Christmas, Jan Brett’s The Mitten is a Ukrainian folktale that celebrates finding hospitality and warmth amid the harshness of winter time. When Nicki asks his Baba (grandmother) to knit him mittens as white as snow, she reluctantly agrees, warning him that he will not see them if he drops them in the snow. As Baba predicts, Nicki drops his mitten in the snow and one by one the woodland animals find it and make themselves a cosy home, finding comfort from the bitter cold. We also suggest The Wild Christmas Reindeer by the same author.
Every year at Christmas time, Mia and her family have a tradition to read out a letter that her Grandpa once wrote to her. In the letter, Grandpa fondly reminisces about the lovely activities they used to enjoy together, such as looking for frogs in the garden or planting flower seeds. At the same time, Grandpa expresses his worries about the world and his heartfelt wishes for it to be a better place for Mia to live her life in. The natural world is in danger, Grandpa muses, and it is up to people like Mia to look after our beautiful planet and make sure we protect our environment as much as we can.
Nostalgic and emotive in both its words and illustrations, this new story steers away from traditional Christmas messages and offers instead a powerful and timely statement about looking after our environment, told through the voice of an old man who treasures his grandchild so much that he longs for a better world for her.
Based on a folktale passed down from generation to generation, The Tale of Three Trees tells the powerful story of Jesus’ life from the perspective of the three trees that became his crib, his boat and his cross. This text is a celebrated favourite in many primary classrooms and is often used as the basis for drama performances or Easter assemblies, as well as a way to engage pupils with the Christian meaning behind the celebrations.
A lighthearted spin on the classic poem ‘The Night Before Christmas’, this is a fun rhyming text that tells the story of a nighttime visit from the Easter Bunny. Younger children will enjoy the story and illustrations while slightly older children could perform the poem by heart or take on the challenge of writing their own versions.
Here at Booksfortopics we are big fans of Mini Grey (author of Traction Man and Toys in Space). This egg-cellent picture book does not fail to impress us either, recounting the tale of an egg that is desperate to learn to fly without having to wait to hatch first. Behind the quirky story, which can be accessed on numerous levels by children of different ages, sit important themes of dreaming big, having hope and the frustration of having to wait for something important to happen.
If you are looking for something slightly different that gives the Christian perspective about Easter, Inspector Smart and the Case of the Empty Tomb: Case File is ideal for KS2. Presented as a detective’s case file, the text and picture clues gradually build up a picture of the story of Jesus’ resurrection and what it means to Christian believers. There is also a simpler chapter book version available on Amazon that is suited to KS1 or weaker readers.
This engaging picture book takes its reader on a guided tour of an imaginary chocolate factory, run by Mr Bunny. The humorous illustrations are packed with details and guaranteed to get imaginations firing. We think that this highly enjoyable text would make a great stimulus for creative writing and is likely to have pupils poring over its inventive visual details for hours. Mr Bunny’s Chocolate Factory is sure to quickly become a humorous Easter favourite in primary classrooms.
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Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)?
Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)?
Would you recommend the book for use in primary schools?
yes
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