Christmas Makes Me Think by Tony Medina reminds readers that Christmas is a time for helping others. It’s a brief story in which a child redefines the holiday. Medina’s main character challenges the tradition to decorate a cut evergreen and dine on ham and turkey. Some children don’t have toys, and not everyone has food and shelter. This child notices the world around them and thinks of ways to share the holiday differently. Chandra Cox's illustrations are as minimal yet effective as the text.
Honestly, it took several readings for me to appreciate this very short story. I was unfamiliar with the choice of a single run-on sentence on each page. I longed for punctuation. Cox's illustrations seemed so basic as to have phoned them in. But then I noticed the clarity of the main character's expressions. Cox captures the concept of thinking in both facial expression and gesture in her cover art. The child appears both questioning and skeptical as he looks over at a decorated tree. He's surprized and dismayed to discover that Christmas trees are cut down from a tree farm. His face shows wonder at homeless people while his friend is head down playing a video game. This book is minimalist and powerful.
This book is read aloud
online by Sarah
Sabbatini.
