I'm from Alaska, so I was already aware that far up north there aren't many - or in some places, any - trees, so the novelty of that was lost on me. For most readers in the US and Canada, though, I imagine it would be pretty eye-opening. Anyway, that aside, this is a great book for children about the wonder of learning about something new, being creative and adventurous, and so much more. I'll read it to my son when he's old enough to understand.

Our homeschooling preschooler and first grader appreciated the details in this book. It is always neat to get a glimpse of children in other cultures and/or times! At first I was thinking the baseball bats were not a good thing for the environment in the long run....and then I realized what a GREAT gift this was! Beautiful illustrations with a lot going on!

This was a cute story, but a little long for the audience I had in my mind. I’m not sure it could hold my kids attention.

This was an interesting look at how common holidays are celebrated around the world. This is also about the power of imagination and creativity. I enjoyed learning more about life in the Arctic circle, but I did find the writing to be a bit dry and could see some challenges in getting the targeted audience engaged with the story because of this.

This was a fun story young kids, especially those who enjoy baseball, will enjoy! The illustrations were wonderful! Christmas at the Arctic Circle looks like midnight! Beautiful!

Baseball Bats for Christmas is a cultural, holiday book about children in the Arctic Circle getting trees delivered to them around Christmas. This gorgeously illustrated book tells the reader about the life these children lead in this environment and how wonderful it was to get trees and then use them to make baseball bats to play.

I loved the cultural aspects of this book, it was interesting to learn about living in such an extreme climate and how they celebrate Christmas without the availability of shops nearby. The illustrations that accompanied the text were a perfect fit for the feel of the book, they are bright and show the location well as a mix of cool colors.

As a learning tool and as a holiday book, this was a wonderful one. It embraces the essence of giving and gifting things that are dear to you and was very informational about the culture as well.

Review will be live on Cover2CoverBlog on December 7th.

This was a wonderful little Christmas book that tells a story that was great to read! I was intrigued by the title and found that the story was delightful!

The setting of the story is Repulse Bay, "Repulse Bay is smack dab on the Arctic Circle - way up at the north end of Hudson Bay." The year is 1955 and a mere 100 people reside there. In the winter they inhabit igloos and sod huts and the only way to deliver needed goods is by plane.

A little asthmatic boy named Arvaaluk, just seven years old, narrates the story. He's a precious little guy who dearly loves Christmas. He delves into the habits and customs of his life living in the far north and focuses on one special event that made all the children in the area very, very happy.

He tells us that when you look around the landscape there are no "standing- ups" or as we know them, trees, because of the harsh weather they experience there trees will not grow.

One day the Union Jack flag is raised up high in front of the Hudson's Bay company store signally to everyone that a plane is about to arrive and deliver some goods to them.

Rocky Parson, the settlement's hero and pilot, drops off some green things with spindly branches sticking out all over them. He drops off six right in front of Arvarrluk's hut. Whatever could those strange things be?

"What are they?" Jack asked.
"Standing-ups," Peter said confidently. "I've seen them in books at the church. Father Didier showed them to us."

Now that the kids have identified them as trees what on earth are they going to do with them? They did not have much time to figure that out because Christmas festivities were about to begin. After a midnight church service and the exchanging of their most favourite thing in the world between best friends.... the lightbulb comes on bright and shiny! Cleverly the friends decide exactly how to put those six trees to good use. Their brilliant plan will include all the kids in the village so everyone can join in on the Christmas merriment. Wonder what they came up with to make that Christmas magic happen for this year and in the years to come?

The illustrations are just beautiful. Vibrant colours and expressions of the characters so enrich the text. I really love them especially the colour pallet chosen. I highly recommend this book.

I absolutely love getting children's books about different types of people, cultures, and traditions for my kids because I want them to learn about all the interesting things and people that can be found all over the world. When i saw this book available on NetGalley, I knew I had to request it to read to my little ones once winter started to come around. I still plan to read it to them but, for the sake of this review, I decided to go ahead and read it myself beforehand. Starting off, I have to say that the illustrations in the this book are absolutely beautiful and remind me of some of the books I used to read as a child. The pictures are so colorful and full of wonder. The book itself is very text heavy, unlike most children's books. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but I could see how it could cause younger kids to lose interest in the story. I honestly wasn't crazy about the story itself. It seemed a bit all over the place and jumped from one thing and one topic to the next. There just seemed to be a lot of different things that didn't cohesively flow together or keep my interest in a positive way.

Children’s Fiction
5-9
What fun it is to discover a classic for the first time! The 2017 reissue of this popular children’s picture book gave me the chance to finally read this award-winning Inuit story, based on the author’s own lived experience. When the bush pilot Rocky Parsons delivers a load of Christmas trees in 1955, the children of Repulse Bay are intrigued. Only Peter knows what they are. “Standing ups,” he declares, having seen them in pictures shown him by Father Didier. Asked what they are for, he simply shrugs. But when someone gets a ball for Christmas, the purpose of these standing ups becomes clear to the children – standing ups are ideal for making baseball bats! Kusugak draws from his own experience and the oral storytelling tradition he grew up with in creating this story of life in the high Arctic more than 60 years ago now. He grew up living a nomadic lifestyle, using dog sleds and living in igloos, until he was taken from his family and placed in a residential school when he was just six. This story is a sweet tale of childhood innocence and joy. I loved the descriptive details like the runaway sled dog, and the illustrations, by Vladyana Krykorka, add texture and depth to the story. The pages are filled with children and dogs joyously playing in a place where the days are short but twilight is long, resulting in glorious colour as skies of orange and green dominate the barren landscape. Who needs standing ups when that is the view? The storytelling narrative makes it too long for storytimes with preschoolers, but this is ideal for classroom use and holiday laptime sharing, introducing children to life as it once existed in the high Arctic. A Canadian treasure that will give pleasure at every read. My thanks to Annick Press for the advance reading copy provided through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
More discussions and reviews of this picture book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33215501

Arvaarluk is growing up in Repulse Bay, which is near the Arctic Circle. It's 1955, and no trees grow there because of the cold.

At Christmas, the pilot who keeps the village stocked with goods, brings Christmas trees with the rest of his supplies. It's the first time Repulse Bay has had any trees.

Once Christmas is over, Arvaarluk's friend Yvo has a genius idea: turn the trees into baseball bats! The kids have already been playing ball, but it's hard to find sticks to use as bats. Now they've got a source that will last a while.
〰
I liked this book. I assume it's at least partly autobiographical, given the author's name and the fact that his bio says he grew up in Repulse Bay himself. This is the second children's book I've read that gives details about growing up Inuit, and they've piqued my interest enough that I'd like to read more.
〰
The main story is peppered with random anecdotes and observations about some of the cultural traditions; for example, at Christmas, each person gives his favorite belonging to his best friend, instead of exchanging newly-bought gifts. This particular example would be good for teaching kids how to be generous even when you don't have a lot of money or stuff.
〰
I LOVE the artwork in this book. The drawings are simple but beautiful, with amazing color and detail. I sat and looked at them a good long while.
〰
I'd recommend this book to kids who are 8+. I chose it to see if it'd be something my nephew would like (he's 7), but I think he needs a little more experience reading before trying this. It's a little wordy for a read-aloud, at least for a kid with a short attention span, but the pictures and content are pretty engaging.
〰
This is a reprint of a book published in 1990.

Gorgeous! I found myself paging through this book repeatedly, just looking at the richly (yet simply) detailed pictures. I loved the textures and colors. I could feel the cold breezes and almost hear the children playing ball. I loved how the author described Christmas – a time when you take your most favorite possession in the world and give it to your very best friend.

The simple and charming true story is about a young boy growing up in the far reaches of northeast Canada, so far north that there were no trees growing and their only contact with the outside world was an airplane pilot who brought supplies to the Hudson Bay Store for them. One day, he brought “standing ups,” or trees, as we know them. But the children found another use for the trees – making ball bats.

The story and illustrations went together perfectly. Sometimes, the story carried more details than the picture, and sometimes the pictures carried more details. Both together create a gorgeous picture book showing the beautiful diversity of our world. This book left me feeling warm – in spite of it being set on the Arctic Circle. Although the story does not explicitly discuss the birth of Christ, I loved how the story incorporated that theme of giving your favorite possession to your best friend. There is lots of room here for discussions with children who read this story about what it means to give one’s favorites to one’s best and how God did that very same thing for us. While there is definitely a place for books that explicitly discuss spiritual themes, I also think that books that prompt thinking and pondering of meanings are just as necessary in life. This book is one of those, and I truly enjoyed reading it. Although my children are long past picture book age, I think I’ll add this one to our Christmas basket of books nonetheless because it was so gentle, so beautiful, and so meaningful.

I gratefully received an eARC from the author, publisher, and NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased review.

'Baseball Bats for Christmas' by Michael Arvaarluk Kusugak with illustrations by Vladyana Krykorka is a beautifully illustrated and told picture book about a remote group of people in Repulse Bay in the North West Territories, now known as Nunavut.

The book takes place in 1955 in a remote and barren place that doesn't even have trees, or what the kids call "standing-ups" because they've never seen a tree. The kids like to play baseball when they can find a stick, but with no trees around, it's tough to get a game going. When a local pilot delivers six trees right before Christmas, the kids don't see trees. They see their baseball dreams coming true.

The story is a bit on the wordy side for young readers, but it's a really nice story. The illustrations are soft and beautiful. I really liked this story of a group of kids in a remote place who like to play baseball.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Annick Press Ltd. and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

This children's story is charming. My favorite line was "Christmas was a time when you took your most favorite thin in the world and gave it to your best friend." I would read it to all the children in my life just so they could hear and ponder that line. The little children in the book like to play ball but have no baseball bats since there are not trees in their extreme Northern home. When trees are delivered, they don't know what trees are for, but turn them into baseball bats. Great lessons - it is possible to be happy without things, you can use what you have to make what you need.

A very insightful and well-done story on a small splice of life in Repulse Bay in the Arctic Circle - a place where trees don't grow. There they celebrate Christmas, practice being cowboys, and learn how to make great use out of those Christmas trees getting delivered by playing baseball, a game known by many and a fact that makes this an easily relatable book. The illustrations are wonderfully done and help add to the great story!

I think books set in Nunavut are awesome and I try to get them for my son since he is growing up in the territory. The story of Arvaarluk & his friends growing up in Repulse Bay in the 1950s was so interesting to read. The illustrations are beautiful and add so much to the story. I do think that something should be added to the book saying that Repulse Bay has recently changed their name to Naujaat so that people trying to look up the town would be able to find it.

This engaging tale provides a rare glimpse into life for Inuit children, providing a much needed look at how holidays can be celebrated without such heavy reliance on capitalism!

This book takes place above the arctic circle. A land with no trees. I too have lived in such a place (Adak, Alaska). One year, the plane brings it’s Christmas supplies, which includes six trees. At least one of which is used to make a baseball bat. I lovely story with lovely illustrations to o along with it. It reminded me of a time when I too lived in a land with no trees.

Baseball Bats for Christmas is being reissued by Annick Press in September of this year. I had never read this children's story before but I am glad I now have done so. This is a beautiful book that I will be adding to my Christmas library. The illustrations are gorgeous and could easily be framed and hung by themselves.

This story is set in Canada's far north in the community of Repulse Bay, which is situated on the Arctic Circle in 1955. There are no trees yet the children frantically look for sticks to use as baseball bats to play one of their favourite past times, just like children play everywhere. When Rocky, the pilot brings in six Christmas Trees, the children do not know what they are. They decide after Christmas that they could be whittled down to make baseball bats. A fun story, however there is so much more to it than that. Learning about the Inuit Christmas customs was very interesting. What they do about gifts and their Spiritual celebrations was eye opening. The story is recommended for ages 4 to 8, but I would use it with older children as well. This would make a wonderful resource teaching about the Inuit culture, Christmas traditions and multiculturalism. A great addition to school, classroom and family libraries.

Did you ever read Dylan Thomas' <em>A Child's Christmas in Wales</em>?

This is like that, but not. This is a nostalgic look, as Dylan's was, of Christmas gone by. But instead of fires in the living room, and batty old aunts, this has baseball bats made from "Stand ups" or Christmas trees, because, what else would you use perfectly good wood for. It is the story of a land in what used to be the NWT and is now Nunavut, before white people did anything else then fly in, drop off goods, and fly out again. And it is about giving gifts for Christmas, which are your most prized possession, such as the wild dog that was given to Arvaarluk's father, and how Arvaarluk gives his toy gun, and gets a pair of mittens.

It is a story of time gone by, with no judgment or anything, other than the story itself. This author also wrote, with Robert Munsch, <em>A Promise is a promise </em>, which is a delightful story of Inuit peoples set in modern times, but with mythical creatures.

The text is a bit long for a traditional picture book, but when you read it, it is a bit like the Dylan story, a story that can be read, and the pictures looked at, and I think the whole thing works.


Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.