Pick up a good book for the holidays

Onto Chapter 2, if you will, of suggested books for holiday gift giving.

“Mona’s Eyes,” a novel by Thomas Schlesser

Every Wednesday for 52 weeks, 10-year-old Mona and her grandfather Henry visit 52 art masterpieces in Paris before she potentially will lose her eyesight. Her grandfather may not be able to prevent Mona’s loss of eyesight, but he can fill her life with beauty while she can still see and appreciate the art. This is a tender story about bonding. Photographs of all 52 masterpieces are inside the book’s fold-out dust jacket. The book has been translated into 38 language, including Braille. It is a New York Times bestseller and is the 2025 Barnes & Noble Book of the Year. The author teaches art history in Paris.

“The Sea Captain’s Wife: A True Story of Mutiny, Love, and Adventure at the Bottom of the World” by Tilar J. Mazzeo

New Englanders Mary Ann Patten, age 19, and her husband, Capt. Joshua Patten, have completed their first clipper-ship race from New York to Hong Kong. If they win a race from New York to San Francisco, they might have the funds to buy their own ship. But Joshua took seriously ill and was confined to the hulls on the run down the southern Atlantic Ocean. 

Mary Ann, who just learned she was pregnant, has to decide: Will she turn the command over to the deceptive, violent first mate or would she do what no woman had ever done before — put down the first mate’s attempted mutiny and take the helm of Neptune’s Car around Cape Horn in the midst of a terrible storm? She chose the latter. 

In doing so, the heroic Mary Ann Patten became the first female captain to navigate the Southern Ocean. 

“The Christmas Sweater” by Jan Brett

This imaginative story is about a young boy named Theo, his pet pug Ari and the sweater that Yiayia (Theo’s grandmother) gives Ari as a Christmas present. Ari isn’t too terribly excited about the decorated sweater, but Theo is thrilled about the snowshoes Yiayia has given him.

So he and Ari set off on a Christmas morning hike in the falling snow, with Ari stuffed in Theo’s backpack. Uh-oh. Something’s amiss. Ari isn’t wearing the sweater. In the snow behind them, Theo finds a long length of unraveled red yarn from the sweater. They trace the yarn back to town. Also inside the backpack is a small angel Yiayia intended as a decoration for the sweater. No problem. The angel will have a new home atop the neighborhood Christmas tree. 

Brett is a celebrated author/illustrator of many Christmas-themed books for children. The target audience for “The Christmas Sweater” is age 4-8.

“The Woodcutter’s Christmas” by Brad Kessler and photographs by Dona Ann McAdams 

The book contrasts the icy beauty of winter in bucolic Vermont with the bustling, gray streets of New York City’s Lower East Side. It tells the story of a Christmas tree farmer who stops visiting his tree stand in the city after a life-changing experience. The book was originally published 25 years ago and had been long out of print. This is a deluxe and expanded holiday gift-book edition, with an updated text and a new selection of McAdams’ photographs.

“Los Niños Mariachis/The Mariachi Kids” by Mario Bencastro, illustrated by Robert Casilla 

This bilingual book shows the values of practice and perseverance. 

Joselito has wanted to be a mariachi singer from the first time he heard a group perform the traditional Mexican folk music. His sister Lupita wants to wear the fancy mariachi outfits, especially the wide bowties and the boots. But the siblings have obstacles to overcome — their mom said they are too small. Their dad said the hats are too big. Their grandfather said their voices aren’t strong enough. Their classmates laugh when Joselito sings rancheras. 

But Joselito and Lupita aren’t deterred. They practice mariachi songs after school with the encouragement of a teacher, Miss González, who urges them to keep singing. Their family finally sees that the siblings were ready to go public. They began singing at parties and, best of all, their dad invites them to sing with his band Mariachi Sol y Luna. 

The book’s target audience is ages 4-8.

“What Rivers Know: Listening to the Voices of Global Waterways” by Basia Irland 

If rivers could talk, what would they tell us? Just ask the author. Irland gives a voice to 25 major waterways as they navigate their relationships with humans. The book addresses such issues as climate change, water scarcity, pollution and wastewater. The Rio Grande, one of the 25 waterways in the book, eloquently speaks to the reader: “… once I’m on my way down to the Gulf of Mexico I will encounter dams, drought, unrealistic expectations of how much water I can reasonably provide, complicated water compacts, toxic discharges, contentious immigration issues fostered by my identity as a border and so many problems that I have been declared an ‘endangered’ river.” 

Another chapter centers on the 2015 Gold King Mine oil spill in southern Colorado that fouled the Animas and San Juan rivers. 

Irland is professor emerita at the University of New Mexico’s Department of Art and Art History.

“Growing a Sensational Garden in the Southern Rocky Mountains: A Monthly Guide” by Nan Fischer

Fischer knows whereof she writes — she’s a horticulturalist and the owner of a nursery in Taos. She has written on gardening topics for many publications. “Growing a Sensational Garden in the Southern Rocky Mountains” offers advice for high-altitude gardeners in northern New Mexico, southern Colorado and associated regions of Arizona and Utah. It’s a handy, low-cost, easy-to-learn guide for veggie, fruit and flower gardening. What to do in December? Fischer suggests checking out seed catalogs to help determine what seeds you have and what seeds you’ll need to replenish for next year.