Re-Post: The Holly and the Ivy by Rumer Godden and Barbara Cooney

NB: While Christmas is approaching, I will post one Christmas Book review every afternoon--some new reviews and some reposts from last year. You can find all my Christmas reviews here, and you can find lots more wonderful Christmas books in the LLB Christmas Book Shop.  Today I'm giving your two books by Barbara Cooney and Rumer Godden!

TITLE: The Story of Holly and Ivy
AUTHOR: Rumer Godden
ILLUSTRATOR: Barbara Cooney
PUBLISHED BY: Viking Juvenile, 2006
ISBN: 978-0670062195
PURCHASE: Amazon

Rumer Godden is in the air, of late.  People kept mentioning to me her novel In This House of Brede, which is on my summer reading list, and her children's novels are seeing a bit of a resurgence: the New York Review of Books Children's Selections has published The Mousewife and Bethlehem Books has just reissued The Kitchen Madonna.

Her children's books are a bit too sentimental for my tastes (though I have no real objections to them), but, as we might expect, that sentimentality seems just right for a lovely Christmas story, like The Story of Holly and Ivy.  It is about expectation, about love, about generosity of spirit, about finding a home.  In it a little orphan girl wishes for a family, and for a doll of her own, like the one in the window of the shop.  The doll, in turn, wishes for a little girl to take care of her.  And a sad couple wishes for a family of their own.

Wonderfully illustrated by Barbara Cooney (who, you might remember, created one of my favorite Christmas stories, How the Hibernators Came to Bethlehem), this is a must read for any girls ages 4-8. They will treasure it.