Fiction for the Holidays: Home

A thirteen-year-old girl spends her first holiday away from home completing a scavenger hunt that takes her across Europe in 12 Dares of Christa, the first contemporary novel from Marissa Burt, author of Storybound. Christa is a holiday junkie. What's not to love? There's decorations! Gifts! Caroling with friends! But thanks to her parents' recent separation, Christa's favorite time of year is now filled with heartache. And when her mom announces that she's taking her on a mother-daughter trip to Europe over winter vacation, Christa knows she should be excited. She just can't imagine spending the yuletide season without her dad. However, waiting at her hotel in Italy is a special package from her father: the first of twelve dares that take Christa to landmarks in three beautiful countries and introduce her to people who will show her that hope is alive in the strangest of places.

Celebrate the holidays in style -- mouse-style, that is! Join Geronimo for his first-ever special edition. It was Christmastime on Mouse Island, and I couldn't wait to celebrate with my friends and family. But then I discovered that they were all traveling out of town for the holidays, and I'd be spending Christmas alone! I was starting to feel like a real grinch. Would this be my loneliest Christmas ever?

When mischievous mutt, Junior, causes a Turkey Day disaster, getting out of the doghouse will take a Christmas miracle! Are you ready for a festive adventure? Join me, Junior on the most PAWSOME, most BARKTASTIC journey through the HOWLIDAY SEASON. You'll read all about: FANGSGIVING, CRITTER-MESS and the mysterious SAINT LICK. Why strange humans called CAROL come and howl at the front door. And why SHINY TREES suddenly sprout inside your kennel! This will be the best holiday EVER! As long as the Mom-Lady doesn't find out what I did to the Fangsgiving turkey. You can keep a SECRET, right? This hilarious, illustrated MIDDLE SCHOOL spin-off about a dog and his boy is perfect for younger readers!

Devorah and Benjamin are excited to open their Hanukkah present from Bubbe and Zayde, which turns out to be an ugly old dreidel. It's a big disappointment--until the dreidel transports them out of modern Los Angeles to join the ancient Maccabees! Once they convince a suspicious Judah Maccabee and their new friends that they've arrived to help, they use what they know about the Hanukkah story from Hebrew school to aid the Maccabees in their battle against Antiochus. The kids know that the miracle of Hanukkah relies on finding the special oil for the Temple menorah, but where can it be?

One lousy miracle. Is that too much to ask? Evidently so for Joel, as he tries to survive Hannukah, 1971 in the suburbs of the suburbs of Los Angeles (or, as he calls it, "The Land of Shriveled Dreams"). That's no small task when you're a "seriously funny-looking" twelve-year-old magician who dreams of being his own superhero- Normalman. And Joel's a long way from that as the only Jew at Bixby School, where his attempts to make himself disappear fail spectacularly. Home is no better, with a family that's not just mortifyingly embarrassing but flat-out broke. That's why Joel's betting everything on these eight nights, to see whether it's worth believing in God or miracles or anything at all. Armed with his favorite jokes, some choice Yiddish words, and a suitcase full of magic tricks, he's scrambling to come to terms with the world he lives in-from hospitals to Houdini to the Holocaust-before the last of the candles burns out.

It hasn't snowed on Christmas in Virginia in more than a hundred years so what are the chances that that will change? Enter the new mailman, Mr. Jack Frost, who not only looks like a jolly old elf but also seems to know a lot about weather patterns, has a fondness for the cold, and works looooooong hours during the holiday season. Plus it's the best time of the year, when strange packages and lots of surprises are swirling around, so isn't it possible that Stink might get his wish? Fans who curl up with this new Moody comedy can be sure that their bellies will shake like a bowlful of jelly.

In this fourteenth book in the My Weird School series, A.J. and his friends are getting into the holiday spirit! Their Spanish teacher, Miss Holly, loves to celebrate holidays like Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Hanukkah. But then she starts hanging mistletoe everywhere! Do you know what happens under there? Boys will have to kiss girls. And girls will have to kiss boys. Ugh! That's so weird. Miss Holly is taking the holidays to the extreme! Perfect for reluctant readers and word lovers alike, Dan Gutman's hugely popular My Weird School chapter book series has something for everyone. Don't miss the hilarious adventures of A.J. and the gang!

It's December at Oak Glen Primary School and all EllRay can think about is Christmas. As far as he's concerned, Christmas is the best--no school, presents, fun parties, and lots of cookies! But before EllRay can celebrate with his family, he must lead half the school in the Winter Wonderland assembly. How tough can it be to memorize a few lines? Very tough, especially when EllRay's soon-to-be ex-friend gives him a challenge to perform onstage. If he completes the challenge, he'll save his friendship...but he'll also ruin the assembly. EllRay is in for a not-so holly jolly time.

When Sam realizes his interfaith parents can't figure out how to celebrate the holidays, he turns to God for answers. Twelve-year-old Sam Goodman knows the holidays are going to be difficult when his dog knocks over the Hanukkah bush/Christmas tree. His Jewish father and Christian mother have never quite figured out how to celebrate both holidays, and when the tree goes down, their resentments, simmering for so long, boil over. His older sister and younger brother don't seem to have any solutions for the family's predicament; his best friend Avi seems to know who he is as he prepares for his Bar Mitzvah; his secret crush, Heather, knows who she is and who she wants to associate with.

One Christmas Eve, after being particularly cruel to his employee, the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his dead business partner, Jacob Marley, who tells him that he will be visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, Future. Each ghost shows him things that rekindle the joy and spirit of Christmas within his heart and awaken his goodwill toward his fellow man. In typical fashion, Dickens deals with social injustice in a way that transcends the 19th century. This illustrated version of the classic holiday tale is brough to life with an illustrated Character List (like a Dramatis Personae), 134 pages of color story artwork, and fascinating support material that details the life and work of Charles Dickens as well as information on Victorian England.

Christmas Classics presents comics adaptations of both holidayfavorites and rarities, featuring Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol". Alsoincluded are an early F. Scott Fitzgerald tale, an O. Henry western, a fairytale by Willa Cather, and a Christmas horror story by Fitz-James O'Brien. Plus,a seasonal Sherlock Holmes adventure by Arthur Conan Doyle, Clement C. Moore'sclassic poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas", and a letter from Santa Claus to MarkTwain's daughter.

An ill-timed storm on Christmas Eve buries the residents of Gracetown under multiple feet of snow and causes quite a bit of chaos. One brave soul ventures out into the storm from her stranded train, setting off a chain of events that will change quite a few lives. Over the next three days one girl takes a risky shortcut with an adorable stranger, three friends set out to win a race to the Waffle House (and the hash brown spoils), and the fate of a teacup pig falls into the hands of a lovesick barista.

If you love holiday stories, holiday movies, made-for-TV-holiday specials, holiday episodes of your favorite sitcoms and, especially, if you love holiday anthologies, you're going to fall in love withMy True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories by twelve bestselling young adult writers (Holly Black, Ally Carter, Matt de La Peña, Gayle Forman, Jenny Han, David Levithan, Kelly Link, Myra McEntire, Rainbow Rowell, Stephanie Perkins, Laini Tayler and Kiersten White), edited by the international bestselling Stephanie Perkins. Whether you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah, Winter Solstice or Kwanzaa, there's something here for everyone. So curl up by the fireplace and get cozy. You have twelve reasons this season to stay indoors and fall in love.