BOOKS TO BORROW

"The Paper Bag Christmas" by Kevin Alan Milne, Center Street, 150 pages

Read aloud: age 9 and older

Read yourself: age 9, 10 and older

At the insistence of their father, 9-year-old Molar and his older brother Aaron are in line at the mall, waiting to see Santa Claus. Both boys no longer believe in Santa, but this year the tradition seems particularly important to their dad. When Molar and Aaron finally meet with Santa, he informs them they won't be getting anything they've asked for. Instead, they will get everything they never thought they wanted.

With that, Santa (actually Dr. Chris Ringle, a pediatric oncologist) convinces the boys to volunteer as Santa's elves at the hospital children's ward for the holiday. What each boy learns is something they could have never have imagined; something that changes their lives in the deepest, most meaningful way.

LIBRARIAN'S CHOICE

Library: East Lyme Public Library, 39 Society Rd., Niantic

Library Director: William Deakyne

Children's Librarian: Randall F. Haines

Choices this week: "My Name is Yoon" by Helen Recorvits; "Stop the Train" by Geraldine McCaughrean; "The Conch Bearer" by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

AT THE BOOKSTORE

"Dog Loves Drawing" by Louise Yates, Alfred A. Knopf, 2012, 32 pages, $16.99 hardcover

Read aloud: age 3 to 6

Read yourself: age 7 and 8

Dog loves books very much. But one day he receives a book in the mail that doesn't have one word or one picture in it except for the note from his Aunt Dora, saying "May the lines you draw open a door to some wonderful adventures." A sketchbook!

Dog immediately knows what to do. His first sketch is a door that Dog steps through, and then a stickman friend who says hello to Dog. And from there, more friends are added and exciting places and wild adventures unfold.

"Sarah Gives Thanks" by Mike Allegra, illustrated by David Gardner, Albert Whitman & Co., 2012, $16.99 hardcover

Read aloud: age 6 to 9

Read yourself: age 8 and 9

In the 1800s, recently widowed Sarah Josepha Hale needs to find a way feed her family. She begins writing, and soon magazines print and pay for her work. She becomes such a popular writer that eventually she is named editor of a women's magazine.

Sarah feels that Thanksgiving should be a national holiday, a day of collective thanks for everyone in the nation, so she writes letters to influential businessmen, government officials and four presidents, and is determined to be heard and make the holiday official. And finally, after 36 years of persistence, that's exactly what President Lincoln did.

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