Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Book Lovers' Advent Calendar: Day Eleven



Stock photo available at DepositPhotos.

Well, so Coleen has been doing a lot of traveling with her new job, and has been hitting air traffic control conferences and symposia all over the world. She bought a pink wool coat in Paris, y'all.  Fortunately she and I wear the same size, and she's a good sharer.  Otherwise, she'd have to go back to Paris, just to buy a pink wool coat for me so we could be twins.

She goes to a lot of cool places, but the one trip that truly does make me want to tag along is the journey to Australia and New Zealand.   If I didn't love my own job so much I'd be totally jellie.  Some day I'll get there!

tangent: The hipster urchins say "jellie" all the time when they mean "green with envy" -- and I totes want to be all up in that trendy slang for shizzle, McDrizzle.  Actually, I don't know what I just said. 


Bondi Beach Surf Rescue Crew (2011), via Getty Images/Don Arnold

Well, so I  know I have a few readers from Australia and New Zealand, so I got to wondering whether those folks get annoyed or just fed up with all the wintery Christmas season books that permeate the market at this time of year, since Australians often celebrate their summery Christmas with a cookout on the beach.



 

So I thought I would look for a Christmas storybook that speaks to the way the celebration is seen on the other side of the world.  And I found this great little gem, A Bush Christmas, based on a poem written by C.J. Dennis in 1931.  It is a humorous look at an outback Christmas, where the heat of the noonday sun completes with Mum's hot oven as she puts together a "traditional" feast.  The children in this story cannot imagine a cold Christmas!  Although our world is much more connected these days, through television, movies, and social media, this look at a summery celebration will tickled your bundled up kids.

This book is not available through Amazon, but can be found at the publisher's website; the price is in Australian currency.

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