The Christmas Porringer

Evaleen Stein was an American writer of children’s books from the early 1900s. Her books, some of which have been in print for over 100 years, are expertly written and packed with moral value. The Christmas Porringer tells the story of a little Flemish girl who lives with her loving grandmother—a lace maker who is very poor. When a robber steals the little girl’s porringer (a small dish for soup), an unexpected change of events intertwines their lives together. This would make a great Christmas family read-aloud. The first two lines of the book are an example of how this is classic literature at its best: “Over the old Flemish city of Bruges the wintry twilight was falling. The air was starry with snowflakes that drifted softly down, fluttering from off the steep brown roofs, piling up in corners of ancient doorways, and covering the cobblestones of the narrow streets with a fleecy carpet of white.”

(Reviewed by Jenny Phillips)