The True Gift: A Christmas Story

by Patricia MacLachlan Narrated by Aya Cash

Overview

All year long Lily and Liam look forward to Christmas on their grandparents' farm. It's always the perfect trip — walking to the lilac library, trimming the tree, giving gifts. But this year, thanks to a white cow alone in the meadow, things will be different. This Christmas, Lily and Liam will find out the meaning of a true gift.

From one of our most beloved authors comes a brand-new holiday classic that rings in the season by celebrating the joys of family, community, and true giving.

A Simon & Schuster audio production.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

In this sweetly engaging chapter book, two siblings visit their grandparents' farm for Christmas. Liam, an especially sensitive bibliophile (he takes 37 books along), notices “White Cow” standing all alone in their field and worries she's lonely. While initially reluctant, narrator Lily goes along with Liam's plan to buy a cow friend for White Cow; as they pool their money, Liam posts signs asking for help from the community and sells his books. With MacLachlan's well-drawn characters and Floca's simple pencil and graphite drawings, it's a poignant story with a classic feel. Ages 7–up. (Oct.)

School Library Journal

Gr 2-4–Lily and her younger brother go to their grandparents’ farm for Christmas, as always. This year something is different; White Cow is the only animal in the field. Liam, certain that she is lonely, sacrifices his beloved books to buy her a calf companion, and Lily overcomes her fear of the large animal. The simple, elegant prose tells a warm family story with a classic holiday theme. Floca’s graphite and ebony pencil drawings are lush with evocative detail and perfectly complement this lovely offering.–Virginia Walter, UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, CA

Kirkus Reviews

Newbery Medalist MacLachlan offers a quietly moving Christmas story that illustrates the power of children to change their world. Lily, the first-person narrator, and her younger brother, Liam, spend every Christmas vacation at their grandparents' farm. Liam wants to buy a cow as a companion for the family's pet, White Cow, who seems lonely out in the field by herself. By Christmas Eve, Liam has raised enough money to buy a calf companion, but there is also a Christmas surprise of several cow visitors brought by neighbors to keep White Cow company for the holiday. MacLachlan uses her typical taciturn style featuring dialogue and minimal description to convey the intense feelings of the sensitive little boy trying to accomplish a seemingly impossible task. Floca's delicate, full-page pencil illustrations complement the text with understated emotion. (Fiction. 7-10)

From the Publisher

Newbery Medalist MacLachlan offers a quietly moving Christmas story that illustrates the power of children to change their world…. Floca's delicate, full-page pencil illustrations complement the text with understated emotion.”

“The simple, elegant prose tells a warm family story with a classic holiday theme. Floca’s graphite and ebony pencil drawings are lush with evocative detail and perfectly complement this lovely offering.”

“With MacLachlan's well-drawn characters and Floca's simple pencil and graphite drawings, it's a poignant story with a classic feel.

DECEMBER 2009 - AudioFile

There have been Christmas stories about dogs, cats, camels, donkeys, and reindeer. It's about time cows got equal time. Newbery Medalist MacLachlan (for SARAH, PLAIN AND TALL) tells a contemporary story about a brother and sister who react with compassion to a patient white cow who is all alone in their grandparents' meadow. Aya Cash's gentle voice pulls listeners into this engaging tale of the kids' efforts to hook the cow up with a bovine companion after Liam learns from his reading that cows don't enjoy solitary living. Cash's warm storyteller's voice brings the serious Liam and his cynical older sister, Lily, to life as the siblings become convinced that the best present of all isn't something you get, but something you give. M.M.C. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171089665
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	10/06/2009
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

Liam and I sit on the backseat of Papa’s old car. The car heater isn’t working, so Liam and I share a blanket. We can see our breath in the air.

“How many books did you bring?” whispers Liam.

Liam and I share a worry. Our school closes for ten days, and we’re going to Grandpa and Gran’s house. We always go there in December, waiting for Christmas and Mama and Papa to come Christmas Day. We worry about not taking as many books as we’ll need.

“I brought fifteen books,” I say.

“I brought thirty-seven,” says Liam.

I burst out laughing.

“Don’t worry, Lily. There is the stone library if you run out.”

Liam runs out of books all the time. Sometimes he reads three chapter books in one day.

I smile.

We love that stone library, our second home at Grandpa and Gran’s farm.

“The lilac library,” Liam says.

It’s true. No matter what time of year—winter or summer or fall or spring—that library smells like lilacs.

Liam takes a book out of the bag at his feet. I smile. I am three years older than Liam, and I have a sudden sweet memory of teaching him how to read. He was four years old and he grinned for two weeks when he figured out the mystery of words.

“We’ll have snow,” says Papa, looking up at the sky. Liam and I laugh, and Mama laughs too. We call Papa the Weather Man.

And suddenly, as if his words bring it on, snow begins to fall; flakes one by one, slowly at first, then harder. Papa turns on the windshield wipers, and we watch the back-and-forthing of them.

“I hope the library stays open if it snows,” says Liam.

“That library is always open,” says Mama. “That library has been open ever since I was a little girl.”

We turn into the long dirt driveway to Grandpa and Gran’s house, past the meadow where White Cow turns her head to watch us go by.

“Where’s Rosie?” asks Liam. “Where’s the donkey?”

“Don’t know,” says Mama. “Can’t see her.”

The snow is coming harder now and is beginning to stick to the road. It is almost dusk.

“Did you bring your money?” asks Liam.

I nod.

We have worked weekends and after school to earn money for Christmas presents. I babysat for the three Cooper children across the street. Liam and I both mowed lawns and shoveled snow when it came. Once he painted a shed. There are only two stores in Gran and Grandpa’s small town. But that is enough for us to buy presents for everyone.

Liam holds up a red sock with a gray stripe. It is fat with his money.

I smile. The car passes the barn and pulls up to the front porch of the big white house. There are Christmas lights in every window. Gran and Grandpa come out to wave. Their terriers, Emmet and Charlie, bark fiercely at us, then race down the porch steps happily for jumping and licking.

Snow falls harder.

We’re here!

© 2009 Patricia MacLachlan

Videos