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Christmas Holidays!
Chatterbooks Activity Pack
Reading and activity ideas for your Chatterbooks group
About this pack
It’s the Christmas Holidays!
In this Christmas Holidays Chatterbooks pack you’ll find a selection of books for your Chatterbooks
groups to read and discuss – plus further book suggestions, useful website addresses, and lots of
activity and discussion ideas for your Chatterbooks group’s Christmas get-together.
Several of the books have a Christmas theme – and others would make great Christmas presents for
friends, brothers and sisters.
The pack is brought to you by The Reading Agency and their publisher partnership Children’s
Reading Partners
Chatterbooks [ www.readinggroups.org/chatterbooks] is a reading group programme for children
aged 4 to 14 years. It is coordinated by The Reading Agency and its patron is author Dame
Jacqueline Wilson. Chatterbooks groups run in libraries and schools, supporting and inspiring
children’s literacy development by encouraging them to have a really good time reading and talking
about books.
The Reading Agency is an independent charity working to inspire more people to read more
through programmes for adults, young people and Children – including the Summer Reading
Challenge, and Chatterbooks. See www.readingagency.org.uk
Children’s Reading Partners is a national partnership of children’s publishers and libraries working
together to bring reading promotions and author events to as many children and young people as
possible.
Contents
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Christmassy Books & great gifts for Christmas
7
More Christmassy stories & ideas for presents
8
Ideas for your Chatterbooks sessions: 2013 Best Reads! Christmas Card Reviews;
Peg out your Poetry Christmas style! Christmas Book Tree
9
Special Christmas Chatterbooks session, with Victorian party games
10
Books as Christmas presents
12
Letters to Santa
12
Poetry: What’s in your Christmas Stocking?
13
Poetry: The Twelve Days of Christmas
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Design your own Monster Snowman
For help in planning your Chatterbooks meeting, have a look at these Top Tips for a Successful
Session
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Christmas Holidays Chatterbooks Activity Pack
Christmassy Books and great gifts for Christmas
Rebecca Cobb Aunt Amelia Macmillan 9780230764811 A lovely present for younger children
We were in a bad mood. Aunt Amelia was coming to look after
us…..When Mum and Dad went away for the night, Aunt Amelia comes to
look after one very cross little girl and boy. They do NOT want ot be
looked after and, even worse, Mum has left a list of boring instructions.
But Aunt Amelia turns out to be rather different from expected…and a
LOT more fun!
About the author: Rebecca Cobb has collaborated on two picture storybooks with the Orange-Prize
winner Helen Dunmore, and her debut solo project was Missing Mummy. This was followed by
Lunchtime, and Rebecca also illustrated Julia Donaldson’s The Paper Dolls. She lives in Cornwall.
We have two Aunt Amelia activity sheets for you to download: One and Two.
Gillian Cross
The Monster Snowman
Barrington Stoke 987-178112-009-5
For older children
Jack wakes up on his birthday to find an extra special present - everything
is covered in fluffy, white snow! He and two friends Sam and Ryan decide
to build the biggest, scariest snowman in the world. But when they all
receive a mysterious text in the middle of the night, the last thing they
expect is to be chased up a tree by the monster snowman! Is the snowman as scary as he seems?
A delightfully crafted story with beautiful illustrations from award-winning Ross Collins. With a
reading age of 8, it's also suitable for reluctant, struggling and dyslexic readers.
About the author: Gillian Cross has been writing children's books for over thirty years. She is
married with four children and lives in Dorset. She won the Carnegie Medal for Wolf and the
Smarties Prize and the Whitbread Children's Novel Award for The Great Elephant Chase.
A taste: A huge shape came marching round the corner of the house. Ryan screamed when he saw
it. Jack couldn’t believe his eyes. ‘That’s impossible!’ he shouted.
‘It can’t be true!’ yelled Sam. But it was!
The snowman was striding towards them, with its huge glove-hands held out as if it wanted to grab
them. Its light bulb eyes flashed ON OFF ON OFF and its sharp glass teeth glittered horribly.
‘Let’s get out of here!’ shouted Jack.
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Christmas Holidays Chatterbooks Activity Pack
Julia Donaldson/Lydia Monks Sugarlump and the
Unicorn Macmillan 978-0230769885
For younger children
When Sugarlump the rocking horse wishes to see the world, a magical
unicorn with a silver horn and sparkling blue eyes turns him into a real
horse. But after trotting around the farm, galloping around a racetrack
and even dancing at the circus, Sugarlump learns to be careful what he
wishes for and realises how much he misses the children he left behind.
Luckily the unicorn has one more wish to grant . . .
About the author and illustrator: Julia Donaldson was the 2011-13 UK Children's Laureate and the
prize-winning author of much-loved picture books. Julia also writes fiction as well as poems, plays
and songs -- and her brilliant live children's shows are always in demand.
Lydia Monks is one of the most original picture book artists working today. Her distinctive use of
colour and collage has won her critical acclaim and several awards, including the Smarties Prize.
A taste: …time went by and the hills grew hard
Sugarlump hung his head.
‘Oh to be free of this heavy load
I wish I could gallop!’ he said.
‘Done!’ came the voice of the unicorn
And she flashed her eyes of blue
Seven times she turned around
And the horse’s wish came true.
Here are three fun Sugarlump activity sheets for you to download: One, Two and Three.
Layne Marlow You Make Me Smile OUP
978-0192794734 For younger children
It's the first snowfall of winter and the little girl in this story is filled with
that sense of wonder we all experience when the world turns white.
She builds a snowman and gives him a twig smile so that they may
share a moment of happiness and know the promise of a friendship
that will be renewed each year.
Very simply told, this story focuses on the bonds of love and friendship
- the pleasure we can give to each other with just a smile
About the author: Layn Marlow is a children's picture book author and illustrator who lives and
works in the South of England. Her work has a sympathetic warmth and humour, and her titles have
sold over a million copies worldwide and been translated into more than 20 different languages.
Hurry up and Slow down won several book awards, and A Very Strange Creature (written by Ronda
Armitage and illustrated by Layn Marlow) was short-listed for the Red House Book Award in 2010,
and will also be in the shortlist for the Coventry Inspirations book award for 2013.
A taste: ‘You’ll be cold, cold, cold, with a radish-red nose.
Your arms may be stiff, but your eyes are going to shine.’
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Christmas Holidays Chatterbooks Activity Pack
Gaby Morgan (ed) Christmas Poems Macmillan
978-1447227762 For all the family to enjoy
This festive collection of classic and brand-new poems celebrates all the
best things about Christmas from the Nativity to Father Christmas,
including snow, angels, reindeer, Christmas trees and, of course, Mary,
Joseph and the baby Jesus. 'Celebrates everything from snow and
stockings to the Nativity story and its associated wonder' (Times Ed)
Decorated in full-colour by Axel Scheffler.. TES
About the editor and illustrator: Gaby Morgan is the Editorial Director for Non-fiction, Poetry and
Licensing at Macmillan Children’s Books. She has compiled many best-selling anthologies including
A First Poetry Book, with Pie Corbett, and Fairy Poems, which was short-listed for the CLPE Award.
Axel Scheffler's award-winning books include Room on the Broom, The Snail and the Whale and The
Gruffalo. His illustrations have been published in more than thirty countries. He lives in London.
A taste:
little tree
little silent Christmas tree
you are so little
you are more like a flower
Who found you in the green forest
and were you very sorry to come away?
see i will comfort you
because you smell so sweetly
i will kiss your smooth bark
and hug you safe ant tight
just as your mother would,
only don’t be afraid…
e.e.cummings little tree
Jenny Overton The Thirteen Days of Christmas
OUP 978-0192735430 Illustr. Shirley Hughes
For children aged 7+, and all the family to share
‘On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a partridge in a pear
tree ...’ We all know this classic Christmas song, but what if someone really
did send you all of those gifts? Where would you put all the geese a-laying?
Not to mention the lords a-leaping! This is what happens to Annaple, being
courted by her sweetheart Francis, in this charming story which is perfect for
all the days of Christmas.
About the author and illustrator: Jenny Overton grew up in a Surrey village that is still her home
today. She has spent most of her working life as an editor and wrote several books for children. She
wrote The Thirteen Days of Christmas as a story for her younger sister.
Shirley Hughes is one of the nation's best-loved illustrators for children. She has created some of
the most enduring characters in children's literature and was honoured with an O.B.E. in 1999. She
has received many prestigious awards, including twice winning the Kate Greenaway Medal.
A taste: The noise was tremendous: the drums, the honking geese, strange shouts from the
leapfrogging lords, the mooing cows, the whistling birds, the choir still singing, the musicians still
playing, and the voices asking ceaselessly, ‘What is it? What has he sent today? Can you see? What
is it?’
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Christmas Holidays Chatterbooks Activity Pack
Rebecca Patterson The Christmas Show Macmillan
978-0230767201 For younger children
It's Christmas and the children have been practising very hard for their
nativity play. The narrators are word-perfect, the Important Angel has
brushed her hair and the audience are in their seats. But when the
curtain rises, no one's expecting a spare shepherd to steal the show ...
A bright, bold, brilliantly observed book that's full of festive fun -- with a
gorgeously glittery cover that makes it the perfect stocking filler!
About the author: Rebecca Patterson graduated from Anglia Ruskin University in 2009 with an MA
in Children's Book Illustration and came third in the Macmillan Prize for Illustration in the same
year. She won the 2012 Roald Dahl Funny Prize for her book, My Big Shouting Day (Jonathan Cape).
The Christmas Show as charming, fresh and funny as her previous titles, The Deep End, Not on a
School Night and The Pirate House. Rebecca lives in Cambridge.
A taste: I wasn’t listening when Miss Bright gave out the parts, so I don’t know who I am
Ashton and Claudia are the BIG parts, and Connor is the triangle.
Maggie Pearson
Short Christmas Stories
OUP
978-0192794703 For everybody to share and enjoy
Over forty stories in one book - all of them very, very short!
None of the stories is more than two pages long, but each of them is
special and thought-provoking. Drawn from a range of sources, including
stories from around the world about Christmas gift-givers, Christmas
legends and Christmas traditions, as well as folk tales, scary tales,
narrative jokes, true Christmas stories, and original stories too, these are
ideal for use in the classroom, for sleepovers, Advent bedtime stories, and just for dipping into.
About the author: After studying French at King's College London, Maggie Pearson spent two years
working in the Guildhall library in London, before settling down to be a full-time mum. Her father
was a bookbinder and invented brilliant stories to pass the time during his job. Maggie began
writing with retelling lesser-known traditional stories and has since written over thirty books for
every age group. She especially finds herself being drawn back to folk tales and legends.
A taste: ‘Well, that’s it!’ said the servants as they carried the Christmas tree out to the rubbish heap
next morning. ‘That’s Christmas over for another year.’
Was that it? thought the fir tree. Was that all? Surely there must be something more.
‘Wait a minute!’ cried the cook.
‘I knew it!’ thought the fir tree. ‘My story’s not ended yet.
But all stories must end. The little fir tree’s ended in one last blaze of glory on the kitchen fire.
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Christmas Holidays Chatterbooks Activity Pack
More Christmassy stories, and ideas for presents !
** especially for younger children; all the other titles are for families & everybody!
Christmas Collections
Wendy Cooling
The Puffin Book of Christmas Stories
Puffin
9780141306612
Terry Deary & Martin
Brown
Horrible Christmas
Scholastic
9781407136264
Michael Morpurgo
Michael Morpurgo Christmas Stories
Egmont
9781405268950
Christmassy Stories
Janet & Allan Ahlberg
The Jolly Christmas Postman **
Puffin
9780141340111
Richard Curtis
The Empty Stocking **
Puffin
9780141336251
Claire Freedman &
Ben Cort
Aliens Love Panta Claus **
Simon &
Schuster
9781847385703
Jennifer Gray
Guinea Pigs Online: Christmas Quest
Quercus
9781780878454
Francesca Simon
Horrid Henry’s Christmas Cracker **
Orion
9781842555460
Jeremy Strong
Christmas Chaos for the Hundred-Milean-Hour Dog
Puffin
9780141325002
Ideas for presents
– some new titles from 2013
Darren Shan
Hagurosan
Barrington
Stoke
9781781122068
Yasmain Ismail
Time for Bed, Fred **
Bloomsbury
9781408837016
Jessie Williams
Emily and Patch **
Curious Fox
9781782020202
Jennifer Gray
Atticus Claw Lends a Paw
Faber
9780571284474
Jackie Morris
East of the Sun, West of the Moon
Frances
Lincoln
9781847802941
John Hegley
I am a Poetato
FrancesLincoln
9781847803979
H.L.Dennis
The Knights of Neustria (Secret
Breakers)
Hodder
9780340999639
Tom Jackson
Stop the Clock!
Red Lemon
9781783420056
Gemma Merino
The Crocodile who Didn’t Like Water
Macmillan
9781447214717
Dave Cousins
Waiting for Gonzo
OUP
9780192745460
Charlotte Guillain
Super Spiders
Raintree
9781406260816
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Christmas Holidays Chatterbooks Activity Pack
Ideas for your Chatterbooks sessions
1.Best Reads of 2013!
Make a display in the library of your group’s favourite books of the year.
*Competition on the website – Your Fave Book of the Year & why – prize, a parcel of
books
*Also on the website: Christmas reading challenge to run from 12th Dec to 6th Jan –
log the books you are reading in the Christmas holiday – 3 books to get a badge
2.Christmas card reviews
Collect some Christmas cards.
Get your group to write reviews of their favourite books inside the cards and hang
them up in the library as decorations.
3.Peg out your poetry Christmas style!
Create a Christmas tree out of card or use a real or plastic tree. Draw and cut out
some decorations out of paper and on the back, get the children to write a
Christmassy poem.
The children could make up their own poems or choose them from books – see
Christmas Poems in the list above.
4.Christmas Book Tree
Choose a selection of books from the library. Write a set of clues to go with the
books. These clues could be about the characters or what happens in the story for
example. Create a Christmas tree either out of card, or you could use a real or plastic
tree. Hang the clues all over the tree. Then wrap the books up as presents and place
them under the tree.
Each child can choose a present to open. Read the story together and then look at
the clues on the tree and try to find the clue that matches the book.
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Christmas Holidays Chatterbooks Activity Pack
5.Have a Special Christmas Session, with Christmas stories (ideas in the list
above), poems, jokes and songs.
Make party hats and crackers – here are some tips for making crackers:
http://www.dltk-holidays.com/xmas/christmas_crackers.htm
Think up some good jokes and riddles to put in the crackers. Or you could get some
ideas from joke books, like What happens when the Queen burps? (OUP)
Each person in the group (or in twos and threes) then reads, recites, sings, or tells a
joke – it doesn’t have to be very long!
Choose presents from the Christmas book tree (see above) and together match the
books with the clues.
And you could have a go at some of these Victorian children’s party games!
Oh, Great Queen - The queen sits on a “throne” and her subjects, the children in the
group, come up one at a time and stand before her. The subject says without
laughing, “Oh, great queen, I worship thee and bow down before thee”. The queen
then makes silly faces and goofy poses in an attempt to get her subject to
laugh. When a subject laughs, he or she then becomes the new king or queen.
Potato Race - Two rows of 12 potatoes are put on the ground three feet apart. A
basket is placed at the end of the rows. Two players compete against each other to
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Christmas Holidays Chatterbooks Activity Pack
be the first to place all of their potatoes in the basket using only a spoon. The players
are not allowed to use their fingers to pick up the potatoes.
Name the Nursery Rhyme - A person says a line from a nursery rhyme without giving
the name of the rhyme. The group then tries to guess the name of the rhyme.
Blindman's wand - One child is blindfolded and then holds out a stick called a wand.
The other players take turns holding the opposite end. The child with the blindfold
asks a certain number of questions, (it was typically three), and then tries to guess
who the other person (holding the wand) is, based on the sound of their voice.
When Victorian children played this game, they were allowed to answer questions
with animal sounds to make the game harder.
The Name Game was played by older children. Every player wrote down anywhere
from five to 10 famous people's names on pieces of paper. The papers were then put
in a basket and the guests sat in a circle. One child pulled out a name and gave the
child sitting to their right three guesses about the character they had chosen. Their
friend had to guess the identity. Once they did, the basket was passed around to the
next player. If one guessed incorrectly, they had to sit out until the next game
commenced.
6.Books: the perfect Christmas present!
*Look round the library and choose a book to borrow for each member of your
family to read at Christmas. You could wrap them up as presents: explain that they
are a special Christmas read.
*The picture books in the list above would make great Christmas presents for
younger children. Have a look through the picture books in the library and pick out
the ones which you think would make good presents for little ones. Tell each other
about the books you have chosen, and why you picked them.
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Christmas Holidays Chatterbooks Activity Pack
Which of these books would you give to the book characters below?
And why? This would work well as a group activity: talk together about each of the
book characters – some may be new to people so it’s a chance to introduce them to
those books. Then decide together which would be the best gift for each character.
And people can add in their own ideas for more titles as book presents!
**Deadly Diaries
**Which Witch?
**Trust Me, I’m a Troublemaker
**Back Home
**Kaspar Prince of Cats **Genius Ideas (Tom Gates)
**Tamara the Tooth Fairy
**Starting Gardening
Character
Which book for a gift?
Artemis Fowl
Hermione Granger
Horrid Henry
Matilda
Wimpy Kid
Mary Lennox
Atticus Claw
Tracy Beaker
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Christmas Holidays Chatterbooks Activity Pack
Why?
And here are some more books and book characters for you to match up.
Have a go at these yourself, then check out with your friends!
Character
Which book for a gift?
Why?
Cinderella
Mr Stink
Alice
Spot
Captain Underpants
Paddington Bear
Charlie Bucket
Red Riding Hood
Harry Potter
**The Story of Chocolate
**Fairy Tale Twists: The Un-Fairy Godmother
**Winter Wonderland Sticker Book **The Giant Jam Sandwich
**Love That Dog
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**The Killer Underpants
Christmas Holidays Chatterbooks Activity Pack
**A Ball for Daisy
**Wolves
**Room on the Broom
**The Scent of Magic
7.Letters to Santa from different book characters
Ask the children each to imagine they are a character from a book they have read.
Then ask them to write a letter to Santa as that character. It would help to talk about
the characters beforehand, and discuss the sorts of things that character might like
and dislike.
8.Poetry: What’s in your Christmas stocking?!
Have a look at this poem by Eleanor Farjeon from Macmillan’s Christmas Poems
collection:
Christmas Stocking
What will go into the Christmas stocking
While the clock on the mantelpiece goes tick-tocking?
An orange, a penny,
Some sweets, not too many,
A trumpet, a dolly, A sprig of red holly……..
And there’s another poem called Christmas Morning by Stephen Bowkett, with an
up-to-date take on Santa’s presents …pillow sacks of - crackly paper
oranges and apples sweet and tangy
chocolate money
plastic made-in-Hong Kong rockets
sheriff’s badge….
What might be in your Christmas stocking or pillow case?
**Have a go at a Christmas stocking poem like these
**You could do this using the alphabet: apples, a ball, a cricket bat, a doll…..
**Or your group could play the Christmas Stocking memory game – where each
person adds something to the list of things in the stocking – and has to remember all
the things already there! Eg: the first person could say ‘In my Christmas Stocking I
had a sugar mouse’; the second person says ‘In my Christmas stocking I had a sugar
mouse – and a Lego man’……… and so on round the group. If someone forgets
something then they’re out, and the winner is the last one to remember everything.
Maybe you could then use this list for a Christmas Stocking poem!
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Christmas Holidays Chatterbooks Activity Pack
9.Poetry : The Twelve Days of Christmas!
Here’s another list of presents, this time in a traditional Christmas song.
Here’s a fun version of it on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQEOBZLx-Z8
The story The Thirteen Days of Christmas is about Francis who is trying to persuade
his sweetheart to marry him by sending her a different gift (in multiples!) each day of
the Christmas festival.
If Francis were doing this today what presents might he send?
Sports cars? Diamond rings??
Have a go at a 2013 Twelve Days of Christmas song – then sing it together!
How many Traditional Gifts
2013 gifts………………………….
One
Partridge in a pear tree Eg a budgie in a bird cage……………..
Two
Turtle doves
Three
French hens
Four
Calling birds
Five
Gold rings
Six
Geese a-laying
Seven
Swans a-swimming
Eight
Maids a-milking
Nine
Ladies dancing
Ten
Lords a-leaping
Eleven
Pipers piping
Twelve
Drummers drumming
14
Pop stars singing…….
Christmas Holidays Chatterbooks Activity Pack
10.Design your own Monster Snowman – or make it a Friendly Snowman!
Here’s the front cover of The Monster Snowman with
a picture of what it (he? she?) looks like, with
branches for arms; gloves for hands; light bulbs for
eyes; a bottle neck for nose; broken glass for teeth.
(WARNING – don’t make a snowman like this in real
life! You need safe materials - not all that broken
glass!)
Design your own snowman here and label it to say
what materials you would use.
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Christmas Holidays Chatterbooks Activity Pack