Best of
Holiday

1983

Mickey's Christmas Carol: Classic Storybook


Walt Disney Company - 1983
    With every turn of a page, adventure unfolds to create memories that will last a lifetime.

A Christmas Story


Jean Shepherd - 1983
    Its affectionate, wacky, and wryly realistic portrayal of an American family’s typical Christmas joys and travails in small-town Depression-era Indiana has entered our imagination and our hearts with a force equal to It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street.This edition of A Christmas Story gathers together in one hilarious volume the gems of autobiographical humor that Jean Shepherd drew upon to create this enduring film. Here is young Ralphie Parker’s shocking discovery that his decoder ring is really a device to promote Ovaltine; his mother and father’s pitched battle over the fate of a lascivious leg lamp; the unleashed and unnerving savagery of Ralphie’s duel in the show with the odious bullies Scut Farkas and Grover Dill; and, most crucially, Ralphie’s unstoppable campaign to get Santa—or anyone else—to give him a Red Ryder carbine action 200-shot range model air rifle. Who cares that the whole adult world is telling him, “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid”?The pieces that comprise A Christmas Story, previously published in the larger collections In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash and Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories, coalesce in a magical fashion to become an irresistible piece of Americana, quite the equal of the film in its ability to warm the heart and tickle the funny bone.From the Hardcover edition.

The Story of the Three Wise Kings


Tomie dePaola - 1983
    Three wise men of the East, having seen a new star symbolizing the birth of a great king, follow the star to Bethlehem where they present gifts to the newborn Jesus.

An Island in Greece: On the Shores of Skopelos


Michael Carroll - 1983
    There, a chance meeting with the charismatic Vangeli led to him buying a piece of land on a remote cove, once the site of an ancient city and the perfect harbour for Astarte.So unfolds the story of Carroll’s growing attachment to Skopelos as he sets down roots and makes it his home. Engaging and vividly-described, An Island in Greece is a sun-drenched tale of a life full of simple pleasures, governed by the seasons, the tides and the wind; the story of a traveller who finally arrived and a unique homage to the island that harbored him.

It's Valentine's Day


Jack Prelutsky - 1983
    "A humorous celebration." --Booklist.