Books Completed Since December 1

  A Staffordshire Christmas, edited by Robin Pearson

 Tales of Christmas, edited by Amy Newmark

  Sleigh Bells for Windy Foot, Frances Frost

  Dear America: Christmas After All, Kathryn Lasky

 The Tuckers: The Cottage Holiday, Jo Mendel

  Mystery for Christmas, edited by Richard Dalby

  Christmas TV Memories, Herbie J. Pilato

Books Completed Since December 1

As always, all the December book reviews are on pertinent pages in Holiday Harbour:

  The Usual Santas: A Collection of Soho Crime Christmas Capers, from Soho Press

  A Nottinghamshire Christmas, compiled by John Hudson

  Llewellyn's Little Book of Yule, Jason Mankey

 The Matzah Ball, Jen Meltzer

  God Rest Ye, Royal Gentlemen, Rhys Bowen

  A Somerset Christmas, compiled by John Chandler

 The Magic of Christmas, edited by Amy Neumark

  Re-read: A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

  A Suffolk Christmas, compiled by Humphrey Phelps

  Ideals Christmas 2022, editors of "Ideals"

Books Read Since December 1

Remember the rule: all books read during the Christmas season are Christmas books, and all the reviews are in Holiday Harbour. Just click on the links!

  A Berkshire Christmas, compiled by David Green

  Season's Greetings from the White House, Mary Evans Seeley

  A Cheshire Christmas, compiled by Alan Brack

  Mrs. Claus and the Santaland Slayings, Liz Ireland

  Rivers of London: Monday, Monday, Ben Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel, illustrated by Jose Maria Beroy and Jordi Escuin Llorach
Yes, every once in a while I break my "only Christmas books during the holidays" rule—anything "Rivers of London" will make me do it.

"Monday, Monday" is the sweet, sometimes silly, and adventurous story of a robbery taskforce operation, headed by hardass Miriam Stephanopolous, that has one weird quirk: an operative who caught a teen boy who snatches purses suddenly can't remember anything, but mumbles something about a werewolf. Of course "Falcon" (the Met code for Peter Grant, Thomas Nightingale, and the rest of the "weird lot") is called in, something Stephanopolous hates. Each part has an individual thread (part 1 shows Stephanopolous' world, including her home life, part 2 has flashbacks about Nightingale's "Hogwarts" training and later WWII experiences, part 3 shows Peter as an adjusting dad—and a concerned son, and part 4 has a "caper" story with Abigail and Foxglove), but all four parts intertwine in a cleverly told story with a rather joyful ending. All the individual stories, even Stephanopolous's, give you more insight into the characters; Abigail's fox friends reappear, as does Foxglove, and also Peter's parents; and we also get a look at Peter and Beverley's new twin daughters. A fun romp with food for thought.

Seriously, if you are not a person who reads "comic books," you need to read these. They fill in lots of characterization gaps and are great fun and sometimes touching.

  A Lancashire Christmas, compiled by John Hudson

  Here Comes Santa Paws, Laurien Berenson

  Christmas Crackers: Tom Smith's Magical Invention, Peter Kimpton

  Ideals Christmas 2021, from the editors of "Ideals"

  A Derbyshire Christmas, compiled by Robert Innes-Smith

  The Blessings of Christmas, Amy Newmark

Books Completed Since December 1

  Light of the World, Amy Jill Levine

 Re-read: Santa Claus: Last of the Wild Men, Phyllis Siefker

 A Lakes Christmas, compiled by Sheila Richardson

 The Case of the Missing Auntie, Michael Hutchinson
I admit, I still watch cartoons if they're good cartoons. And earlier this year PBS debuted a dynamite new series, Molly of Denali, about a Native Alaskan girl and her family and friends. The series opened with a sobering story called "Grandpa's Drum," about Molly's Grandpa Nat, who hasn't sung with the tribe since his childhood, and what happens when Molly finds out why. This entry in "the Mighty Muskrats" series travels similar ground.

This, the second in a new series by Hutchinson, who is a member of the Cree community, revolves around four children, Samuel, Chickadee, Atin, and Otter, cousins who call themselves "the Mighty Muskrats," who live at the Windy Lake reservation. Chickadee's grandfather admits to her that his younger sister Charlotte was taken away from his family in the late 1950s in what they called "scoops"—native children who were adopted (mostly to act as servants) for white people. Now with the Muskrats heading into the big city to go to an exhibition fair, a disturbed Chickadee thinks their first mission should be to try to track down their missing aunt, but the boys are full of anticipation about visiting cousins, going to the fair, and Otter just wants to see his favorite Native band perform.

No sooner are the kids at the much vaunted mall in the crowded, confusing city that they run into Brett, a boy who used to live on the "rez" and who Chickadee secretly had a crush on., and things start to go a little haywire. But Chickadee is still determined, no matter what, to find missing Auntie Charlotte.

This reads like an old-fashioned kids' adventure—the covers even look like a Happy Hollisters book—with modern sensibilities (internet, cell phones, etc.), real-life problems (Native people still coping with terrible laws once enacted by white settlers), and the problems of a usually-overlooked culture. The kids meet good and bad people of all cultures, cope with bureaucracy, find out some hard truths about their past, but also that they can help overcome it.

Maybe because I didn't read the first book the kids don't seem to be as individually fleshed out as I'd like, except for Chickadee (I still don't think I know how old each of them are, except that Atin is the eldest). Otherwise I found this really enjoyable, and a great way to introduce non-Native children to one aspect of Native culture. (The story is set in Canada, but the "residential homes" mentioned were just like the "Indian schools" like that in Carlisle, PA, which ended up with such an evil reputation, and for good reason.)

 A Christmas Party, Georgette Heyer

 The Book of Christmas Folklore, Tristram P. Coffin

 Bells, Spells, and Murder, Carol J. Perry

 Re-read: Merry Midwinter, Gillian Monks

 A Fenland Christmas, compiled by Chris Carling

 Re-read: The Story of Holly and Ivy, Rumer Godden

 Re-read: Sleigh Bells for Windy Foot, Frances Frost

 Re-read: The Tuckers: The Cottage Holiday, Jo Mendel

 Re-read: Dear America: Christmas After All, Kathryn Lasky

 Carols From King's, Alexandra Coghlan

 Ideals Christmas, from the Ideals Publication

 Re-read: A Little House Christmas Treasury, Laura Ingalls Wilder with colorized illustrations by Garth Williams

 Re-read: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Barbara Robinson

 Re-read: The House Without a Christmas Tree, Gail Rock