Preparing for Advent: Frank McCourt

Another good book for younger students in the run up to Christmas is Angela and the Baby Jesus by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Frank McCourt. McCourt's relationship with the Church was sometimes turbulent (as this interview makes clear) but Angela and the Baby Jesus is a delightful, true story straight from his good Irish Catholic mother. You can read a full review from the New York Times here and you can hear McCourt talking about the inspiration for the book in the following recording, though the sound quality, I'm afraid, is not great.

Preparing for Advent

As Advent draws close it might be worth thinking about what alternatives there are to yet more versions of A Christmas Carol. There are some interesting Christmas stories out there which bust stereotypes. 

Willi Chen's Trinidadian Christmas stories, for example, provide a welcome break from the usual Victorian fare. Alexandros Papadiamandis who has, albeit rather misleadingly, been described as Greece's Dostoevsky also wrote some interesting short stories set during different moments of the liturgical year, including Christmas. A good story for younger children - it makes a good assembly - is Frank McCourt's Angela and the Baby Jesus.

If you are looking for something longer or spikier for older students you could try Alice Thomas Ellis's The Birds of the Air or Mr Ives' Christmas by Oscar Hijuelos.

Anyone else got any suggestions?