In honor of the spirit of giving inspired by the Christmas spirit, below is a list of ten books that embrace generosity.
For kids (and the kids at heart)
1. “Four adventurous siblings—Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie—step through a wardrobe door and into the land of Narnia, a land frozen in eternal winter and enslaved by the power of the White Witch.” In The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, Father Christmas arms the children with weapons and a healing potion all of which are essential in the battle that follows.
2. “Here are talented tomboy and author-to-be Jo, tragically frail Beth, beautiful Meg, and romantic, spoiled Amy, united in their devotion to each other and their struggles to survive in New England during the Civil War.” The March family in Little Women by Louisa May Alcott celebrates quite a Christmas filled with giving, charity, and sacrifices all of which are richly rewarded by the end of the holiday.
3. “A young boy, lying awake one Christmas Eve, is welcomed aboard a magical trip to the North Pole . . . The literal gift in The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg (sleigh bells) has got nothing on the actual gift (believing in the magic of Christmas). The story makes me tear up every time.
4. “Ebenezer Scrooge is a mean, miserable, bitter old man with no friends. One cold Christmas Eve, three ghosts take him on a scary journey to show him the error of his nasty ways.” A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens offers Scrooge the gift of insight into the past, present, and future. Scrooge returns this gift by sharing his riches with those around him.
For adults
These books aren’t necessarily Christmasy, but all embrace the spirit of gift-giving.
5. “A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father—a crusading local lawyer—risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.” Boo Radley from To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee leaves the neighborhood children gifts in a tree an indication that everyone is not what they seem.
6. “Millions of readers around the world have fallen in love with the small town of Big Stone Gap, nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, and the story of its self-proclaimed spinster, Ave Maria Mulligan.” A town conspires to make Ava Maria’s deepest desire become a reality in Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani.
7. “Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart—he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season’s first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone—but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees.” The gift of a scarf and mittens brings the young girl into the lives of Jack and Mabel in The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivy.
8. “Margaret Jacobsen is just about to step into the bright future she’s worked for so hard and so long: a new dream job, a fiancé she adores, and the promise of a picture-perfect life just around the corner. Then, suddenly, on what should have been one of the happiest days of her life, everything she worked for is taken away in a brief, tumultuous moment.” Sometimes a gift can say what our words do not. And sometimes the gift is a word. In How to Walk Away by Katherine Center, it is such a gift that sets Maggie’s world right.
9. “Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.” The gift exchange between Liesel and Max in The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a vignette of sweetness in a world turned upside down by WW2.
10. “Marianne Stokes fled England at seventeen, spiraling into the manic depression that would become her shadow. She left behind secrets, memories, and tragedy: one teen dead, and her first love, Gabriel, badly injured. Three decades later she’s finally found peace in the North Carolina recording studio she runs with her husband, Darius, and her almost-daughter, Jade…until another fatality propels her back across the ocean to confront the long-buried past.” In Echoes of Family by Barbara Claypole White, it is a gift never given that brings secrets to light and healing.
Inspired by the generosity in these books? Interested in gifting a book for a Christmas present? Consider this literary care package for a family at Christmas.