December by Eve Bunting

Simon and his mother are living in house that they constructed themselves. Their home is made out of various scraps of material such as Coca Cola and Clorox boxes. Tonight is Christmas Eve so they have a small Christmas tree top that the lot man gave them which is decorated with odds and ends that they have found on the street. They also have an incomplete nativity scene and two Christmas cookies under the tree. Simon collected cans in order to buy the cookies for him and his mother. On one wall there is a calendar page with an angel on it, a Christmas angel, which they have named December. On this night a woman knocks on the piece of wood that Simon and his mother use as a door; the woman with a rose in her hair asks for shelter. Simon’s mother allows the woman to come in and offers as much hospitality as possible. In the morning the woman is gone and Simon sees the Christmas angel outside his door. He is stunned with disbelief and he can’t figure out if he is dreaming or not. By the following Christmas, Simon and his mother have a new apartment and his mother has a steady job. Simon thinks that things changed because of the way they helped the nice old lady and because he saw December that night; maybe the two are connected…maybe not but when he looks closely at the calendar page, he sees a rose in her hair.

December by Eve Bunting tells the tale of a boy and his mother with no home on Christmas. The story has an ongoing theme of faith. It is an instrument to teach the lesson that there is always someone who needs more than someone else and there is always help to be given even if the amount is small. The story illustrates how faith and hope can keep someone strong. It takes the idea of a homeless family and adds to it the idea that happiness can be found in any situation if there is faith. The picture book inspires kindness within its readers by presenting an uplifting result for a family in need of a better way of life.
Bunting, Eve. December. New York: Harcourt Books, 1997.