Bolley, Cristine. A Gift from St. Nicholas. Illustrated by Bruce Eagle. Tulsa, OK: Honor Books, 2001.
I love the plot of A Gift from St. Nicholas. Cristine Bolley has explained the gifts that come from Santa – they come because St. Nicholas was instructed by God to secretly give gifts. Unfortunately, the poetry format makes the story a little difficult to follow. The entire story is told in rhyming couplets.
Bruce Eagle used bright colors to illustrate the pages. His illustrations complement the story. Scripture references are hidden in many of the pictures in this book.
This could be a good book to use with older children. I can see several academic tie-ins to do. Do a Bible search for the scripture references in the pictures and determine their relationship to the story. Take the story found in the poetry and re-write it in prose. Take a famous Christmas story or legend and re-write it in poetry format.
If you’d like to add A Gift from St. Nicholas to your collection, it is available from Amazon. Using my affiliate link helps to support this children’s literature blog.