Rocking Horse Christmas (bkshelf) (Scholastic Bookshelf)

By Mary Pope Osborne

Book Overview

Let the Scholastic Bookshelf be your guide through the whole range of your child's experiences--laugh with them, learn with them, read with them! Twelve classic, best-selling titles are available now.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0439669383
• ISBN13: 9780439669382
• Release Date: October 2004
• Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.3" x 9.8"
• Age Range: 3 to 5 years

Customer Reviews

love this book

This is one of the books that we read every year on Christmas Eve. My children are all grown up, and this story always brings tears to my eyes. It just makes me think of how quickly kids grow up, but yet some things never change. It's a great book!

Beautiful Story, Beautiful Illustrations

I would recommend this book to a person who enjoyed the book "The Polar Express." "Rocking Horse Christmas" is a very poignant story about a rocking horse loved by a boy but that is then forgotten. Mixed in is a story of growing up and friendship that will pull at the heartstrings of an adult with children. Suitable for a second-grade reader but a story that will be cherished by any age. Highly recommended.

More Than Another Christmas Story

A small boy finds Shadow, a rocking horse, under the Christmas Tree. In his imagination, the two ride to the West, joust, race Seattle Slew in the Kentucky Derby, and go on safari. But then the inevitable happens: the boy starts to grow up, as boys always have and always will (it's at this point I have a hard time reading this to my five year old without pretending there's something in my eye). Shadow ends up in the attic. Years pass.And then the boy's own little boy finds Shadow (as I read this part to my son, there's more pretending that I have something in my eye). Shadow's spirit returns, and they "flew through the sky all Christmas Eve and didn't come home until dawn."The illustrations of this book are some of the best I've ever seen; the facts of growing up are utterly convincing. This book is delightful and devastating. And there's no need to wait for Christmas to read it: we're Jewish, and we read it all year round.

A Treasure Is Found!

I am a Christmas Freak, I will completely admit. However, I LOVED this story. As I read it, I could almost see exactly where I was being taken as a reader. I knew I was about to be pulled in, but I loved every moment of it! The story, quite simply, is one which could be said of any child's favorite Christmas toy. Eventually, that toy is replaced by something -- be it another toy or simply the heartbreak of every child's growing up. Reminiscent of Silverstein's _The Giving Tree,_ the rocking horse keeps vigil, waiting for the little boy who used to have great adventures with him everyday. A happy ending rewards readers who know in their hearts that it is coming (but keep a tissue handy!). A beautifully illustrated book, _Rocking Horse Christmas_ is a holiday treasure to add to any collection!