Lucy & Tom's Christmas (Picture Puffin S.)

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Perhaps it's the spirit of the season that permeates this book, even for those of us in the Southern Hemisphere. Her books include the wordless picture book Up and Up , collection of rhymes and poems Out and About , and for the very young The Nursery Collection . She wrote two novels for older children, Hero on a Bicycle , about a 13-year-old Italian boy during the occupation of Florence, and Whistling in the Dark , set during the Liverpool Blitz. I also love the English flavor of these books, fun to point out expressions like "cross" that may not be so familiar to American children.And be sure to check out my bio page to learn a little about me and the Picture Book/Chapter Book Calendars I sell on Etsy! I'm sure I get more pleasure from it every year that passes, enjoying the wonderful illustrations and the simple story of a Christmas with family and friends together.

We talk about the differences in the way these children celebrate Christmas in England and they celebrate Christmas in the states. It's the first Christmas book I've ever read that showed the children "posting" their letters to Santa by burning them in the fireplace. She was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was the first recipient of BookTrust's Lifetime Achievement Award. Hughes is so prolific and I highly recommend seeking out her picture books- not always so easy to find on this side of the ocean. The illustrations are so detailed and the story is very cute with hilariously accurate depictions of children’s emotions.In 1930s Liverpool, young Bronwen and Dylan find kindness from an unexpected source when they are frightened by what they think is a ghost on Christmas Eve. Shirley Hughes’s illustrations have the same effect as discovering an old reel of cine film buried in the loft. The page where we see the presents that Lucy and Tom have both bought for their families raised a particular chuckle of recognition.

Hughes has a lovely endearing style to her drawing - I will certainly be reading and collecting many other titles from her. I grew up with Lucy and Tom in the late Seventies and early Eighties, so revisiting the book now feels rather like looking at my own childhood Christmases, laid out in lovely thick gouache. Her first book - Lucy and Tom's Day - was published in 1960, and she followed it with, among others, Dogger, and the Alfie series. One of the loveliest things to do at Christmas is cuddle up and enjoy a good picture book together – and these classic stories have really stood the test of time.

Shirley Hughes is a great loss to children’s literature and this, of all her books, seems to me one that will last.