A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

You know Scrooge and Marley, Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim, and the ghosts of Past, Present, and Future - but do you know them in their original tale?

A Christmas Carol was written over a century ago, in 1843, and it still lives on in plays and movies, with real live actors or with cartoon characters. But I think that its true spirit is in reading the original words as Charles Dickens wrote them. As beautiful as the movie banquets and balls are, it's hard to take in all the details of the wonder shown there, the way you can with the rich descriptions Dickens provides of tables piled high with treats or of the people who move in and out of Scrooge's life.

As author Karen Hesse writes in the foreword of the 1999 paperback edition, A Christmas Carol is "as funny and optimistic as it is frightening. It brims with the sounds, smells, and sights of nineteenth-century England; it crackles with characters as fresh and alive today as they were when Dickens first created them."

This Christmas season, curl up with a copy of A Christmas Carol and transport yourself into another time, another place... shiver with Scrooge in the presence of the ghosts, laugh with Mr. Fezziwig, and echo with Tiny Tim, "God bless us, every one."

Mostly Monty by Johanna Hurwitz

Monty has asthma. That means that sometimes it's hard for him to breathe, especially if there is a lot of dust or if there is a dog or a cat in the room. It also means that he can't go camping, or join Little League, or run around as much as the other kids in his neighborhood.

But there are a lot of things Monty can do. He's a terrific reader - he's only in first grade, but his teacher says he reads as well as a fourth grader. He's also very observant; he finds a lot of lost things at school and makes sure that they get to the Lost and Found lady. Now, that doesn't mean that Monty doesn't make mistakes sometimes, but at least he always tries his best - and has fun along the way!

For young readers who are looking for something adventuresome and challenging to read, Monty is here to lend a hand!