Books

Cyber Monday: The Great Treasury of Christmas Comic Book Stories


By Beth Davies-Stofka
November 29, 2010 - 08:20

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Do you have a child in your life?  You must!  Almost everyone does.  It could be a little brother or sister, a niece or nephew, the child of a good friend, or even your own child.  If you don't have anyone close, think of all those little kids who won't get gifts this year, and reach out to Toys for Tots or your local church or community center to ask if you can donate.

Let's talk about giving the gift of reading.  There are few things more pleasurable than seeing a child fall all the way into a book.  It's enchanting to watch them bend over the book as it lies in their laps, eagerly taking in every picture and word.  It's marvelous to sit down next to them and help them read.  The moments when they connect those abstract squiggles called "letters" and "words" to the pictures on the page are positively miraculous.  You want to be there to see that realization dawn!

So give them a book about Santa.  Kids love Santa so much.  They love him with every fiber of their being.  They go misty at the thought of him.  They go crazy at the sight of him.  Santa has to be the most universally adored figure on the planet, even surpassing the sweet and funny Scooby-Doo.  If you give a child a book about Santa, that child will learn to love reading, because children will always learn the pleasure of reading if you give them a book about something they love.

At the same time, you want to help raise the next generation of comics fans, right?  That means you want to give them comic books to read.

So, let's do the math.  You want to give them a book about Santa, and you want to give them a comic book.  I think that means you want to give them a book of Santa comics!

Now that you've decided what to buy the child in your life, all you need is a recommendation.  There really is only one obvious choice: The Great Treasury of Christmas Comic Book Stories.  Edited and designed by Craig Yoe, this is the latest in IDW's Yoe Books! imprint, and this one is especially for kids.

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The Christmas comics collected here will appeal to kids of all ages, to be sure, but it will be a big book of pure joy for kids aged four to seven.  It's wall-to-wall Santa, all Santa all the time!  You know how children feel about Santa at this young age, just as they learn to read and before they know the mind-boggling dimensions of the Santa conspiracy.  Young children will not put this book down!

A 173 page, 11-by-9 hardcover, this book really is the perfect size to make a child feel like he got something enormous and special, while still able to balance it on his lap.  It has all the thoughtfulness, class, and attention to detail that we've come to expect from Yoe Books!, the cover detailed with shiny gold snowflakes, the front and end papers printed with comics, and the page numbers set inside tiny red 3D Christmas ornaments.  If you can still remember being a little kid, you know any child will feel as though she's received the Hope Diamond for Christmas.

It contains rare Golden Age comics from the likes of Walt Kelly, John Stanley, and L.B. Cole.  It even has a rare comic book story from Richard Scarry.  And these comics are perfect stories for little kids.  They are full of children and young animals, and concern themselves with classic Christmas concepts like charity and helpfulness – and presents of course!
 
Any child young enough to believe in Santa will see themselves in stories such as John Stanley's The Helpful Snowman and A Letter for Santa.  I was really touched by Walt Kelly's story of Ticky Tack, The Littlest Reindeer, about a reindeer too small to help Santa, and unable to find a playmate, until Santa forgets a child's sleigh.  This story has such sweetness and depth!  It far surpasses the Rudolph story.  Someone should be able to compose a catchy tune about Ticky Tack.

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These comics are in color, with a wide range of artistic styles on display.  These artists never forget their youthful readers.  Every panel and every page pops with action.  Faces are eyes are round and endearing.  Some comics are word heavy, and some are not.  We really see how appropriate Christmas stories are for beginning readers when we notice the same Christmas keywords repeat over and over: Santa, toys, elves, North Pole.  Even for the youngest of readers, this builds as the words they learn repeat over and over.  

Two stories diverge from the typical tales of Santa, snow, and toys.  One is Mike Sekowsky's adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.  The other is Alberto Giolitti's adaptation of The Christmas Story, a mash-up of the stories recounted in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.  The art here looks more like Classics Illustrated and less like cartoons, and are denser in narrative.  There are a lot more words to conquer!  Kids might skip them at first in favor of Klaus Nordling's Santa and the Pirates, but at some point they'll tackle the more challenging stories.

Give them this book, and you'll have a lifelong reader by the time they're done!  Buy it today, as you do your Cyber Monday shopping.  It's priced at the low price of $23.00 at Amazon.  For a book that will be read by succeeding generations, that's one beautiful bargain!

Rating: 10 /10


Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12

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