Holiday book sampler

New holiday books for children this year portray a wide variety of characters: dogs, mice, bears, donkeys, snowmen and even people. The themes range from spiritual to outlandish; the illustrations beautiful to cartoon style.

Christmas

• "Advent Storybook: 24 Stories to Share Before Christmas," by Antonie Schneider. This is a book for the whole month. Little Bear takes the first peek into the calendar, and his mother tells him the story behind the numbers. There's poetry, songs and simple stories about many holiday celebrations throughout December. (Ages 5-8)

• "Snowmen at Christmas," by Caralyn and Mark Buehner. Taking their Snowmen at Night into the holidays, the Utah author and illustrator tell what happens when the snowmen celebrate Christmas. Children will delight with the frosty friends jiggling in dance, decorating cookies and singing around the snow-clad tree about — you know — snow. (Ages 5-8)

• "Mrs. Wishy-Washy's Christmas," by Joy Cowley and Elizabeth Fuller. "Animals! Time for your bath!" said the fastidious owner, ". . . you must be clean as a brand-new tack." The cow, pig and duck can imagine how cold the water is in their outside tub, so they sneak inside to the pink bathtub with bubble bath and soap. Mrs. Wishy-Washy is a favorite series for children. This is one of the best. (Ages 2 and up)

• "Santa Claus: The World's Number One Toy Expert," by Marla Frazee. Santa is the No. 1 expert on kids, toys and gift giving and he is right 99.99 percent of the time. Here is a humorous look at what Santa does during the year getting ready for the big Christmas Day. Even Santa gets a gift for himself that will delight young readers. (Ages 4 and up)

• "Winter Lights: A Season in Poems & Quilts," by Anna Frossnickle Hines. This is a perfect book for family sharing. The selections highlight all the holidays (Christmas, Santa Lucia, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Chinese New Year) and the winter solstice with poems highlighted beside patterned quilts and extraordinary light images. (All ages)

• "Kringle," by Tony Abbott and Greg Call. "Kringle" requires a big dose of imagination, as it combines magic (runes and flying reindeer), history (the Roman occupation) and theology (the baby Jesus) to suggest the origin of what we call Santa Claus. (Ages 8-13).