The Bird's Christmas Carol--A Very Special Book Review

My third grade teacher was

a very special lady named 

Mrs. Nadine Monroe.

Mrs. Monroe taught me

in third grade at Freeman Elementary as

well as my two brothers and sister.

I credit her with my desire to

become a teacher and with

starting my love of Children's Literature.

It was Mrs. Monroe who first

read me Charlotte's Web,

when our class returned from

the lunchroom each day.

She also read us a book called
The Bird's Christmas Carol
by Kate Douglas Wiggin.
I remember crying at the end of the
book and of borrowing Mrs.
Monroe's copy and trying to copy
the whole book down in a Big Chief tablet.

For years, I wanted my own copy of the
book, but didn't know where to find one.
Years ago, one of my fourth grade
students found a copy in her bookshelf
and told me about it
(since I had told my
students how much I loved the book.)

The Scholastic version shown above was
reissued in 1972 with a new title
Carol Bird's Christmas.

I now own four copies so that
I'll never be without one again.
The copy above is also
a Scholastic version published
in 1972.

This beautiful collector's edition
(I must not be the only one who remembers
this book with fondness) was reissued
in 2001 by Welcome Books and
has gorgeous illustrations.

This is the book that I read from
this Christmas Eve, the first time
I had read the book in quite a while.
My brother, Lynn, found it
for me.  The copyright on this book
is 1929 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

The original was published in 1886 but
this 1929 version is just as special
to me as if I had an original.

I leave you with a quote from
this precious little gem of a book

"And pray a gladsome Christmas
For all your fellow-men;
Carol, brothers, carol,
Christmas Day again."