Today’s guest poster is Tasha B. from Heidenkid’s Hideaway. Today she’s doing a review of The Polar Express.

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The Polar Express

In this work of dystopian fiction, our nameless hero is lured out of his home and kidnapped by a gang of candy-carrying, possibly unionized, railroad employees. After drinking “the kool-aid,” this child believes he is going to the North Pole–but in fact he is being lured to a urbanized landscape where tiny people are enslaved by a cultish leader named “Santa.”

As the narrator and the other kidnapped children are distracted with coco and nougat, the train enters into a hellish, desolate landscape where hungry wolves chase the train’s progress. Before they know it, they’re in the middle of glaciers. Aware that they couldn’t survive in this environment even if they did manage to escape the creepily cheerful train conductor, the children are shuttled with much dread to an evil-looking factory that belches a vicious black smoke.

The factory is deserted, due to the fact that the “elves”–kept in ridiculously old-fashioned clothing to make it more difficult for them to integrate into normal society should they ever desire to escape their fate–have gathered to adore their leader, this “Santa.” The children are led to the center of the factory and Santa picks the narrator to give a so-called gift to.

Foolishly, the child asks for a bell, making it that much easier for Santa to track him, just as he does his genetically engineered reindeer. What does Santa want with these children? To always know how they act, and reinforce his cultish standards of behavior upon the world. That’s why the elves are so cheery all the time–they’re terrified of what Santa will do to them if one murmur of discontent for their slavish existence escapes.

Realizing his mistake, but too late, the narrator tries to lose the bell at the North Pole. He thinks he’s safe, but the train conductor shouting “Watch your back,” as the train rolls away should have clued him in. Instead, he’s shocked to find the bell from Santa under the tree in the morning.

As the narrator grows up, he hopes to stop hearing the bell, and that Santa will cease keeping tabs on him. But the bell keeps ringing and ringing. Somehow, Santa must know that the boy tried to lose the bell on his way out of the North Pole. But you can never escape the North Pole, especially once Santa knows you’re a discontent.

This book is chilling, with a sparse narration that conveys every detail of the horror the children feel as they’re separated from their families in a very non-emotional and deadpan way.  The illustrations are an interesting counterpoint to the story, depicting the world of the factory in soft-focus, undoubtedly to hide the ugly details of the elves’ lives.  Children reading this story for the first time will come away from it with one thought in their sugar plum-addled minds:

Watch your back.

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Thanks Tasha B.! I’d love to see other reviews on the Polar Express!

Stay tuned tomorrow for the BIG GIVEAWAY

I owe a LOT to today’s guest poster. She was with me when Book Blather was just a thought and then again when it became a reality. She was also one of the helping hands that got it off the ground. So I really do owe a lot to Kathy(KB) from The Brain Lair. Today she’ll be talking about being a single mother during Christmas.

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I’ve been writing and re-writing this post trying to find a focus. I knew I wanted to write about being a single parent around the holidays but what aspect? How about I tell you about Christmas morning with the ex and his new family? Should I write about the family that takes me in every Christmas? What about trying to buy gifts on a teacher’s salary? I decided I would tell you a little about each one!

I share custody of The Amazing Dancer and part of our agreement is we split the holidays. One parent has Thanksgiving and the other parent has Christmas and we alternate every year. This year I had Turkey Day, meaning the dancer is at dad’s Christmas Day. Part of our celebration of the holidays includes going to church together on Christmas Eve. I mean all of us: My ex, his wife, our daughter, and their two daughters. We all sit together too. Did I tell you we all attend the same church? Also, since Dancer is at Dad’s, I have to get up and bring all of her presents to his house Christmas morning. I also bring presents for the rest of the family. When she’s at my house, they do the same. Really. We do this every year! The hard part is after opening presents and having coffee and breakfast, I go home. The good news is I nap and then get ready for a visit to the Allies.

Every year the Allies invite me over for Christmas supper. They also invite other families and other single people. Although, for the past few years, I’ve been the only single person there! After dinner, when most everyone else has left, we watch movies and for the past two years we’ve played the Wii! We play Guitar Hero or American Idol Karaoke. So much fun! Our two favorite movies are Elf and The Ringer. We know all the words to Elf and we just love watching Johnny Knoxville trying to scam the Special Olympics. If you haven’t seen either of these movies, put them in your Netflix queue right now! The kid who plays Jimmie is hilarious! We also go out to the movies the next day. Last year we saw Marley and Me and it was amazing. The movie was so good that I bought it for the Dancer for Christmas this year.

Your browser may not support display of this image. One of the hardest things about the Christmas holidays is buying gifts. I help the Amazing Dancer buy gifts for her stepsisters, her stepmom and her dad. Then, her dad and I try to get her everything left on her xmas/birthday list. I also have a list of things that I want to get for myself! The list is about 2 pages long with two columns on each page. I’m always adding things to it and as I get them, I highlight them. Some of the items are huge – like a dishwasher and some are just movies I’d like to own, like HP6. (If you are thinking of buying me something – I’m trying to find a pair of shoes like the ones on the cover of She’s So Money. I love those shoes. Cherry Cheva doesn’t even know where I can find themL) I need more money!

Well, I don’t think I can do a blog post without talking about books. Five teachers participate in a Mock Newbery book club with me. To show them my appreciation I bought each of them two books. They each got a copy of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I read it for the first time last year and I’ve decided to re-read it every Christmas eve. The other books they received were: The Help by Katherine Stockett, Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou, The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2009 ed by Dave Eggers, Geeky Dreamboats: A Celebration by Lacey Soslow, and How To Talk About Books You Haven’t Read by Pierre Bayard. For myself I bought Boneshaker by Cherie Priest, Airman by Eoin Colfer, Soulless by Gail Carriger and Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. Yeah for books and God bless them every page!

Your browser may not support display of this image. Happy Holidays, everyone!

The Brain Lair aka Kathy

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Thanks KB! Any other single parents who would like to throw their own stories in?

Today’s guest poster is someone I consider to by my author-event-buddy. If there’s a signing or talk in the area I know she’s always up to going. And really, it’s been so fun being able to get to know Kristen form Bookworming in the 21st Century. Today she’s talking about her family tradition regarding music.

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Every year at Christmas, my dad’s family gets together to play music. You hear me.. play.. not sing. All of us have a musical background of some kind and can play one or more instruments. My father – a high school choir director (and used to be a band director as well) transposes some of the best Christmas holiday tunes around and our list of songs to play keeps gathering random other songs – including a Danish Christmas carol. My dad’s father is 100% Danish and the tradition came about a few years ago when my grandmother thought it would be a great gift for him.

I have to say, he’s probably rather fortunate to be losing some of his hearing as we seem to get worse every year. I know, you guys are all SO curious about what instrument I play. Here’s a little background. I had to be in band – it was not an option. I chose the clarinet in 5th grade and hated band so much I gave it up right before 8th grade. The deal was that I could quit band in 8th grade if I at least took one year of it (with my father) in high school. I ended up playing percussion. I play the piano – have been since I was five – so I took up all the percussion instruments that dealt with the keys of the piano – the xylophone, the vibraphone, the chimes, and of course, the glockenspiel – to most known as the bells set.

So every Christmas, my father brings home my great grandmother’s old glockenspiel set (it’s residence being the high school he teaches at) and most of the time, he forgets mallets for me to use with it. Thus, the spoon and glockenspiel tradition became a great joke at Christmas time. I usually grab two spoons and use those to play the glockenspiel.

As a newlywed, I must say I’m quite frightened at the prospect of my husband being coerced into the jolly participation of playing in the family band. Although, he has not played the trumpet since middle school,  I do think it will be brought up quite a bit until he caves under the pressure. We shall see, my husband is a bit more thick-headed than myself and no so easily as coerced.

Now, to soften this craziness that is my family – there is one other Danish tradition I love and adore – although we tend to not do it every year. That is the almond in the rice pudding. Basically, someone makes a big vat of rice pudding. Puts one lone almond into it, stirs it up and then every one takes a portion. Then, whoever ends up with the almond in their bowl – gets a prize! Very festive and I happen to really like rice pudding.

Since I am hosting my first Christmas Eve with just 10 of my family members – I plan to surprise them with this dish and I hope my husband’s family likes rice pudding *crosses fingers*.

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Thanks Kristen. You’ll have to let me know if your husband breaks down and joins in the fun!

Today’s guest poster is Mike from Mediaphile & YabYum Music. He’ll be talking about why he loves Charlie Brown Christmas
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A Charlie Brown Christmas has always held a special place in my heart.

Until recently, if you’d asked me why, I’m not sure I could’ve come up with a coherent answer.

“Well, uh, trees, and ‘Jingle Bells,’ and Snoopy, you know?”

Who really knows why they like anything when they’re a little kid? Hell, I was a big fan of sitting upside-down on the couch until I was 12.

Now, pushing 30, worrying about my rent and my Sahara of a love life, I finally understand what it is about this cartoon that really gets me. It’s the melancholy.

Too often in our television and in movies, the holidays are reduced to being lazy after big meals and getting hit in the nuts with Christmas paraphernalia (the tree, ornaments, the baby Jesus, what have you). I like my Christmas ham, and I chuckle just like any guy at the sight of some other dude taking a hit to the babymaker, but, really, is that what the holidays are all about?

No. And Charles Schulz understood this. They are about anxiety. And being annoyed seeing Wal-Mart decorated all Christmasy the day after Thanksgiving. And nameless despair.

There are good things, too. Presents, and family, and seeing little kids get excited when they get a toy that baffles anyone over eight years of age. But to ignore the melancholy is to do St. Nick an injustice.

A Charlie Brown Christmas revolves around Charlie Brown’s disgust at how commercial the holiday has become. Who hasn’t felt this way? Besides marketing executives? When he laments “My own dog gone commercial. Oh, no.” I feel for the poor kid. Giant plastic candy canes just don’t do much for the soul.

Later, Charlie confesses to Lucy (in her lemonade stand psychiatrist role) that he is afraid of everything. At the end of the year, looking back at missed opportunities, and forward to the uncertainty of a new calendar, I can’t imagine not being a little scared.

I am not a religious man. But Linus’ speech gets me every time I watch the special. He uses the story of Jesus to make Charlie feel better about the holidays. But you could substitute the Bible for any number of things. What he says is that Christmas is about more than what we see on TV. I think that’s all we really need.

And this, my friends, is why I want to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas every year going forward. Happy Holidays! Eat lots, have fun, and make 2009’s exit a joyous one! Drea, thanks for the opportunity to write for BookBlather.

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Thanks Mike! Man, anyone else have the urge to go watch Charlie Brown Christmas now?!