By Jennifer Liu Bryan, Hazel Cole Kendle
Next Chapter Press
www.colefamily-christmas.com
PO Box 1937
Boca Grande, FL 33921
513-709-4344
Cole Family Christmas is a sweet, sweet story based on the childhood memories of Hazel Cole, one of the characters in the book. She and her granddaughter-in-law, Jennifer Liu Bryan, co-wrote the book.
The setting is a coal town of Appalachian Kentucky in the 1920s. Almost immediately, you feel as if you've been invited to spend a few weeks before Christmas with Mama, Papa, and the nine Cole children. You feel warm and cozy in their small coal company house. Even though the family doesn't have much, you are completely sure the love they share makes up for a lack of possessions.
Papa's job at the coal mine is dangerous, but it provides for them. This year, he has been given a small raise in salary, which means wish-making in the Sears, Roebuck and Company catalog may provide more than dreams this Christmas!
Without giving away too many of the precious details, suffice it to say that family, love, and sacrificial giving become far more important than wished-for gifts as a nasty winter storm blows in on Christmas Eve.
I can't tell you how much my children and I enjoyed reading Cole
Family Christmas this December! We savored each of the nine chapters because none of them took more than ten or fifteen minutes to read, and we wanted more. Not only is the story warm and delightful, the color illustrations are too!
This book brings the early 1900s coal country to life. Not only do you meet the family, but you learn a little about coal mining, a coal company town, and some of the trials these families faced. The authors have added a few extra tidbits of factual information about the family in an epilogue, including a photograph of them from 1918.
I feel it necessary to mention that Santa is a part of the book. The children write letters to Santa with their wishes. And "Santa" delivers those presents. From the reader's point of view, and really from the children's point of view in the story, everyone seems to know who Santa really is. I, personally, wouldn't discount the book on this fact alone.
So, do I recommend Cole Family Christmas? Absolutely!
Product review by Cindy West, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, January 2009
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