This title is suitable for ages 9 to 12 years. The wish book. This amazing year, the nine children in the Cole family have been allowed to sit down with the Sears, Roebuck and Company catalogue to choose the gift they would most like to receive for Christmas. This is a rare event, for the Coles are not wealthy. Indeed, "Cole Family Christmas" is the true, tender, and wholly unforgettable tale of a coal miner's family. The story takes place in the small company town of Benham, Kentucky, in a time (1920) and place when coal was king and families made their precarious living mining the dirty and sometimes deadly coal.When one of Mama's few possessions, a treasured purple glass bowl with fluted edges, is accidentally broken by exuberant children rushing in from the outdoors, and an unlikely blizzard prevents Papa from coming home after working extra hours at the coal mine on Christmas Eve, the stage is set for a Christmas morning in which gifts are given and received that no one could have predicted.

This is a beautiful book about a family living in Blenham, Kentucky in 1920. The father is a coal miner and has just been promoted to foreman. This means that each of the 9 children can pick one gift from the wish book for Christmas. The children realize that they are not wealthy and it is interesting how each picks their wish.

Coal mining is dangerous and at the Christmas Eve company party the children learn their father must work that evening to load one last train. There is also a blizzard. How will Santa find his way?

Christmas morning brings gifts from the heart and what is really important in life.

The illustrations are wonderful and full of life. I just wish there were a few more of them. The book brought back a lot of memories as as a child I too was allowed one wish from the wish book.

Thanks for thinking of me Ace! I'll hold on to this and share it with my students next Christmas!