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A Christmas Memory
- By Truman Capote
- Genre: Autobiography
Common Sense Media says
This tale deserves to be shared every holiday.
Parents say
Kids say
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that a child drinks a little whiskey and lives with an assortment of relatives instead of with his parents. Otherwise there is nothing to be concerned about, and much to be enjoyed.
What's the story?
Truman Capote recalls a Christmas past, when he was 7 years old and living with an assortment of relatives. One, a 60ish, rather childlike distant cousin, is his best, and only, friend, as he is hers. Each year they save up money to buy the ingredients they can't gather for free to make 30 fruitcakes, which they send mostly to strangers they admire.
Capote relates in some detail their four-day extravaganza of gathering, preparing, and baking, and the homely way they spend the holidays together. Includes a CD of Celeste Holm reading the story.
Is it any good?
This new 50th-anniversary edition of Truman Capote's delightful, poignant, and now classic story could not be more perfectly suited to the text. The delicate watercolor illustrations, taken from a 1989 edition, capture the understated gentleness of the story, while on the accompanying CD Celeste Holm reads the text in a warm, grandmotherly voice with a slight Southern lilt and a humorous enthusiasm.
A CHRISTMAS MEMORY, more vignette than story, captures with great gentleness and fascinating detail a distant time of wood-burning stoves, chamber pots, open fields, and a slower pace. For today's children this is a glimpse of a world that is almost beyond imagination, and more compelling than fantasy. It is a sleepy book to be shared between adult and child. This is one of those stories they'll ask for every year, and you'll be glad to bring it out again and, curling up with a child you love, take a trip to a time long gone.
What families can talk about
Families can talk about the unusual friendship. Why do Buddy and his elderly cousin have such a close friendship? Why do the adults treat her the way they do? Your children may want to make fruitcake for their friends after reading it.
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AGE
Very touching, with a sweet message about love.
Great movie! I watch it every Christmas, with or without kids!
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| Author: | Truman Capote |
| Illustrator: | Beth Peck |
| Book type: | Non-Fiction |
| Genre: | Autobiography |
| Publisher: | Alfred A. Knopf |
| Publication date: | December 31, 1969 |
| Number of pages: | 48 |
| Hardcover price: | $17.95 |
| Publisher's recommended age(s): | 12 - 12 |
| Read aloud: | 7 |
| Read alone: | 8 |
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