What Child Is This?

A Christmas Story

Katie, a foster child, wants only one thing for Christmas: a family. However, there are no wise men coming from the East or shepherds watching in the fields. There’s also a teenager named Matt, who believes in doing a good deed. And another teenager, Liz, whose family decorates and celebrates but leaves her wondering where the true meaning of the holiday has gone. And Mr. Knight and his son, Tack, who run an inn and put up a tree each season, on which children’s wishes will hang as they hope and wait for them to be granted.
 
It’s the season of joy, hope, and miracles, but will the Christmas spirit be strong enough to grant those wishes that seem impossible?

© Jane Feldman
Caroline B. Cooney is the author of Family Reunion; Goddess of Yesterday (an ALA Notable Children’s Book); The Ransom of Mercy Carter; Tune in Anytime; Burning Up; The Face on the Milk Carton (an IRA-CBC Children’s Choice Book) and its companions, Whatever Happened to Janie? and The Voice on the Radio (each of them an ALA Best Book for Young Adults), as well as What Janie FoundWhat Child Is This? (an ALA Best Book for Young Adults); Driver’s Ed (an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and a Booklist Editors’ Choice); Among FriendsTwenty Pageants Later; and the Time Travel Quartet. She lives in Westbrook, Connecticut. View titles by Caroline B. Cooney
It's Christmas, the season of miracles, joy, and hope.  Is that spirit strong enough to bring about the impossible?

"Katie, age 8, wants a family." Katie 's Christmas wish is perfectly simple.  And perfectly impossible.  Katie lives in a foster home with fifteen-year-old Matt, another foster child who is so frozen that the warmth of Christmas can't even begin to thaw him.



A family, thought Katie.  You'd sit on their laps, and their hugs would last and last.

Not hugs like social workers gave: quick as grades.

Hugs like mothers gave: wrapping-you-up hugs.

Hugs like father gave: hoisting-you-into-the-air and tossing-you-around hugs.

Being a foster kid was like living in a blender.  Life was always flinging you against sharp blades.

But amazingly, as Christmas approached, Matt was suddenly willing to help Katie with spelling and arithmetic.  Matt was silent but mean; mean from years of no family...and Matt helped her.

She wondered if he would let her walk with him part of the way to the restaurant when he went to work tonight.  Sometimes he did, and sometimes he would let her stop and talk about the pretty decorations people had.  Once, he had held her hand.
  • WINNER | 1999
    Texas Lonestar Reading List
  • WINNER | 1998
    ALA Best Books for Young Adults
"A heart-tugging story with an upbeat ending...Cooney allows the characters to speak for themselves, eventually weaving their lives together into a fitting climax. A moving, fast paced novel, sure to appeal to Cooney's fans."
--School Library Journal

About

Katie, a foster child, wants only one thing for Christmas: a family. However, there are no wise men coming from the East or shepherds watching in the fields. There’s also a teenager named Matt, who believes in doing a good deed. And another teenager, Liz, whose family decorates and celebrates but leaves her wondering where the true meaning of the holiday has gone. And Mr. Knight and his son, Tack, who run an inn and put up a tree each season, on which children’s wishes will hang as they hope and wait for them to be granted.
 
It’s the season of joy, hope, and miracles, but will the Christmas spirit be strong enough to grant those wishes that seem impossible?

Author

© Jane Feldman
Caroline B. Cooney is the author of Family Reunion; Goddess of Yesterday (an ALA Notable Children’s Book); The Ransom of Mercy Carter; Tune in Anytime; Burning Up; The Face on the Milk Carton (an IRA-CBC Children’s Choice Book) and its companions, Whatever Happened to Janie? and The Voice on the Radio (each of them an ALA Best Book for Young Adults), as well as What Janie FoundWhat Child Is This? (an ALA Best Book for Young Adults); Driver’s Ed (an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and a Booklist Editors’ Choice); Among FriendsTwenty Pageants Later; and the Time Travel Quartet. She lives in Westbrook, Connecticut. View titles by Caroline B. Cooney

Excerpt

It's Christmas, the season of miracles, joy, and hope.  Is that spirit strong enough to bring about the impossible?

"Katie, age 8, wants a family." Katie 's Christmas wish is perfectly simple.  And perfectly impossible.  Katie lives in a foster home with fifteen-year-old Matt, another foster child who is so frozen that the warmth of Christmas can't even begin to thaw him.



A family, thought Katie.  You'd sit on their laps, and their hugs would last and last.

Not hugs like social workers gave: quick as grades.

Hugs like mothers gave: wrapping-you-up hugs.

Hugs like father gave: hoisting-you-into-the-air and tossing-you-around hugs.

Being a foster kid was like living in a blender.  Life was always flinging you against sharp blades.

But amazingly, as Christmas approached, Matt was suddenly willing to help Katie with spelling and arithmetic.  Matt was silent but mean; mean from years of no family...and Matt helped her.

She wondered if he would let her walk with him part of the way to the restaurant when he went to work tonight.  Sometimes he did, and sometimes he would let her stop and talk about the pretty decorations people had.  Once, he had held her hand.

Awards

  • WINNER | 1999
    Texas Lonestar Reading List
  • WINNER | 1998
    ALA Best Books for Young Adults

Praise

"A heart-tugging story with an upbeat ending...Cooney allows the characters to speak for themselves, eventually weaving their lives together into a fitting climax. A moving, fast paced novel, sure to appeal to Cooney's fans."
--School Library Journal

PRH Education High School Collections

All reading communities should contain protected time for the sake of reading. Independent reading practices emphasize the process of making meaning through reading, not an end product. The school culture (teachers, administration, etc.) should affirm this daily practice time as inherently important instructional time for all readers. (NCTE, 2019)   The Penguin Random House High

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PRH Education Translanguaging Collections

Translanguaging is a communicative practice of bilinguals and multilinguals, that is, it is a practice whereby bilinguals and multilinguals use their entire linguistic repertoire to communicate and make meaning (García, 2009; García, Ibarra Johnson, & Seltzer, 2017)   It is through that lens that we have partnered with teacher educators and bilingual education experts, Drs.

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PRH Education Classroom Libraries

“Books are a students’ passport to entering and actively participating in a global society with the empathy, compassion, and knowledge it takes to become the problem solvers the world needs.” –Laura Robb   Research shows that reading and literacy directly impacts students’ academic success and personal growth. To help promote the importance of daily independent

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