12 Newly Released
Children’s Holiday Books
F rom globe-trotting Christmas
cookie adventures to dreidel-
making mysteries, these
newly released children’s books
will have you and your little ones
basking in the holiday spirit. So
grab some hot cocoa, snuggle up
by the fire and enjoy one of these
seasonal reads!
1. Gingerbread Friends
By: Jan Brett
Ages: 3-5
Jan Brett’s
popular winter tale
is now a
board book!
Join Gin-
gerbread Baby as he wanders into a bakery
and tries to make friends with other
sweets—with mixed results. Irresist-
ible images inside the bakery and
outside in the snowy Swiss country-
side will delight readers.

2. Hanukkah Harvie
vs. Santa Claus
By: David
Michael Slater
Ages: 5-9
Everything was going
smoothly, a typical
first night of
36 December 2017 washingtonFAMILY.com
Hanukkah… or so Harvie thought!
There was someone else in the
house, and he had presents, too—
Santa Claus! Hanukkah Harvie vs.

Santa Claus is the hilarious and
heartfelt story of how two holiday
heroes wind up with the greatest
gift of all: friendship.

3. The Twelve Days
of Christmas
witty and
tongue- in-cheek
storybooks featuring
the twelve
Doctors. The perfect gift for any young
“Whovian!” 5. The Kwanzaa Family
Illustrated By: Emma Randall
Ages: 3-7
By: Sarah ShaBazz-Ugwumba
Ages: 7-10
Bursting with
gorgeous illustrations,
this book
gives the
classic carol
new life! The
festive artwork and jolly characters
capture all the merriment of the
popular Yuletide tune. Randall’s
style feels charmingly classic, while
also strikingly contemporary,
making it perfect for the modern
reader. The Kwanzaa
Family is an
entertaining and
educational story about
how a couple
(Leymah and Lekan) met through
the efforts of an African scholar and
matchmaker, Alarena. It is a love
story that also informs the reader
about the principles of Kwanzaa.

4. Dr. Tenth:
Christmas Surprise!
By: Adam Hargreaves
Ages: 3-7
An all-new, deluxe Doctor Who
Christmas adventure featuring the
Tenth Doctor and his companion,
Donna—reimagined in the style of
Roger Hargreaves. This is the first
hardcover special in this series of
6. Merry Christmas, Peanut!
By: Terry Border
Ages: 3-7
In this heart-
warming and
humorous Christmas
tale based on
the real-life
adventures of one
peanut, a group of food friends



discover that the true meaning of
Christmas is joining with loved
ones to celebrate the joy of being
together. From the creator of Peanut
Butter & Cupcake, this Christmas
story delivers heart, humor and
plenty of “punny” holiday cheer.

7. The Missing Letters:
A Dreidel Story
with The Very Hungry Caterpillar
making an appearance alongside
each one. This sweet little book is
the perfect Christmas present for
readers young and old.

9. Trolls Holiday The Deluxe
Junior Novelization
By: David Lewman
Ages: 8-11
By: Renee Londner
Ages: 4-9
It’s almost Hanukkah and the
dreidel-maker’s shop is busy. But
all is not well for the four Hebrew
letters that
will soon
go on the
wooden tops. The
Heys, the
Nuns and
the Shins are
jealous of
everyone’s favorite letter, the Gimel. They
decide to hide the Gimels so that
the dreidel-maker can’t use them.

But then, the other letters learn that
the Hanukkah story wouldn’t be
complete without the Gimels! Is it
too late for the missing letters to be
found? 8. Merry Christmas from the
Very Hungry Caterpillar
By: Eric Carle
Ages: 3-5
Join The Very Hungry Caterpillar
for a celebration of all that is festive
during the
holiday season.

The book
is full of
Eric Carle’s
bright, colorful
artwork of
Christmas delights—from presents to
snowflakes and even Santa Claus—
When the eternally optimistic
Poppy, queen of the Trolls, learns
that the
Bergens no
longer have
any holidays
on their
calendar, she enlists
the help
of Bridget,
her new
mismatched bestie and
the rest of the gang on a delightfully
quirky mission to fix something that
the Bergens don’t think is broken.

You can’t stop the music when
DreamWorks’ Trolls arrives just in
time for the holidays.

10. Queen of the
Hanukkah Dosas
By: Anjan Sarkar
Ages: 4-7
In this sweet and humorous pic-
ture book, a multi-cultural fam-
ily (Mom’s Indian; Dad’s Jewish)
celebrate Hanukkah
while in-
corporating traditional
Indian food.

Instead of latkes,
this family
celebrates Hanukkah with tasty Indian dosas.

To her brother’s chagrin, little Sadie
won’t stop climbing on everything
both at home and at the Indian gro-
cery store, even while preparing the
dosas. As the family puts the finish-
ing touches on their holiday prepa-
rations, they accidentally get locked
out of the house. Sadie and her
climbing skills just may be exactly
what is needed to save the day.

11. A World of Cookies for
Santa: Follow Santa’s Tasty
Trip Around the World
By: M.E. Furman
Ages: 4-7
This story takes readers across the
globe to see all the treats that await
Santa on
Christmas Eve. Head
to the
Philippines, where
children leave out
“puto seko” cookies and ginger tea
for Santa; jet to Russia for a honey-
spice cookie; then set out for Malawi
for a sweet potato cookie! When
you’ve returned home, the journey’s
still not over—M. E. Furman
provides recipes for children to
bake some of Santa’s cookies for
themselves. 12. Way Too Many Latkes:
A Hanukkah in Chelm
By: Linda Glaser
Ages: 3-8
Faigel makes
the best
Hanukkah latkes in
Chelm, but
somehow, this year,
she’s forgotten how to make them! She
sends her husband, Shmuel, to ask
the rabbi for help. And in Chelm,
the village of fools, this becomes a
recipe for disaster!
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