The Christmas Barn

Rating:
Summary: It's what's inside you that counts.
Review: Roxie Dockery lives with her family in the North Carolina Mountains in 1930. The Depression is raging everywhere in the country, but it doesn't make much difference to the Dockery family. They have always been poor and they've learned to manage very well. Roxie knows that how much money you have isn't important. The stuffing you have inside you is what counts when trouble hits.

And trouble hits hard just before Christmas. Roxie and her five brothers and sisters are all looking forward to Grandpa George and Grandma Vic, her father's parents, coming to visit like they always do at Christmas. And they're looking forward to the candy that their father brings from town for their stockings, too. But snow comes instead. Lots and lots of it. Roxie wakes up one morning, opens the front door, and sees snow filling their whole porch, from floor to roof. All the kids have to climb out a little window and scoop out a trail from the side of the house all around to the door so their father can get out and help them. They use buckets and pans. Then they have to bail a path to the water pump and all the outbuildings. It takes the whole day. Worse than that, more snow comes that night, and the next day they have to do it all over again. They can't walk through the snow to school, Grandpa George and Grandma Vic won't be able to get through the snow, either, and there won't be any Christmas candy from town.

But trouble isn't through with the Dockery family. One morning a few days before Christmas, when everybody except four-year-old John is outside doing the laundry, they hear a groaning sound, and then a loud snap. The big pine tree beside their house, covered with ice, bends and then breaks. Everybody watches it fall on the house, with John inside.

What will they do if they've lost John? What will they do without a house in the middle of a cold and bitter winter? You will want to read this book to discover how the Dockery family face up to their troubles and show how it's what's inside you that counts, not how much trouble you have.

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Rating:
Summary: Perfect for Children and older Adults
Review: The Christmas Barn is an excellent read and gift for children and anyone that was alive during the Great Depression. I've purchased copies for everyone in my family. During these tough economic times, a look back to harsher times and the true Christmas spirit may make this book a classic one day!