Renfroe's Christmas (Brown Thrasher Books) - Hardcover

Burch, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0820315532 ISBN 13: 9780820315539

Publisher: University of Georgia Press, 1993

Synopsis

In this story, Renfroe Madison, who was first introduced in D.J.’s Worst Enemy, is three years older. It is Christmastime, and while Renfroe’s spirits are high, he is more conscious than ever of his selfish streak. With the family’s worn-out Christmas tree angel―hung by Renfroe on their smokehouse door―acting as his conscience, Renfroe tries half-heartedly to curb his selfishness: Should he have split a 75-cent store credit more evenly instead of buying a 50-cent knife for himself and 25-cent one for his brother D.J.? Should he have given his lasso to three neighbors who got only an apple, an orange, and a candy bar for Christmas? Should he have given his yo-yo to Nutty, a good family friend? Renfroe didn’t really enjoy the yo-yo, and Nutty got nothing but clothes for Christmas. Then, a smile from a handicapped boy redeems Renfroe. He spontaneously gives the boy his brand-new Mickey Mouse watch―“the finest thing I’ve ever owned myself”―because of the happiness it will bring to its recipient.

Renfroe’s struggle to come to terms with himself is paced by the activities of everyday farm life, as well as by a hilarious Christmas pageant, an experiment to increase milk production by singing carols to the Madisons’ cows, and a longing for the snow that seldom falls south of Atlanta.

About this title

About the Author:

ROBERT BURCH has been praised by Atlanta Weekly magazine as "the author of some of the finest, most satisfying books for young people to be written in the South in this century." Author of nineteen books for children, Burch is a three-time winner of the Georgia Children's Book Award, an honor bestowed by the schoolchildren of the state. His story Queenie Peavy is a winner of the Children's Literature Association's Phoenix Award. He is a native of Fayette County, Georgia.

Review:

A gentle Christmas story, too merry to be sentimental but touched with sentiment. . . . The family scenes are natural and lively, the story giving a particularly pleasant picture of a rural community’s close-knit relationships.

(Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books)

The rural regional quality of the story is strong, the details of church pageant and party are relayed with humor, and the conversations abound in briskness and poignancy.

(Horn Book)

This understated story with its excellent characterizations has year-round as well as holiday appeal.

(Library Journal (starred review))

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Georgia Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0820315532
• ISBN 13: 9780820315539
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 56