About the Book:
2012 Indie Excellence Finalist in the Holiday Division.
This beautiful story of a nostalgic look back when the "Wish Book" Sears catalog was the only way children would get their Christmas wishes.
The specialized Sears Christmas Catalog, nicknamed the Wishbook - began in the mid 1930's. It became a holiday staple in virtually every American home.
Not realized at the time, the Sears catalogs were recording the changing scene in America and represented the daily lives and work of thousands of Americans.
Words from the Author:
We lived in a valley called Eagle Creek, which is on the eastern side of Arizona between the Apache Indian reservation and the New Mexico State line. The mail came once a week.
We had no electricity, no indoor bathroom and the water was pumped into the house by a windmill. I lived there with my Mother, Father, Brother, Sister, Grandmother and my Uncle that lived out in the bunkhouse. A catalog was something that we always welcomed into the home. There were feed catalogs, seed catalogs, clothes catalogs and dry goods catalogs.
We enjoyed every one of them. They seem to take us on a journey that we would have never went on unless the catalog arrived.
We ordered mostly out of two catalogs, the Sears, and the Wards catalogs. We ordered our dry goods out of these two catalogs.
When Christmas came around, we didn’t have any malls to browse through but we had something that was better. There was one special catalog that us children loved to see arrive.
As a matter of fact the person that took it out of the mailbox was almost a hero for an hour or so. It arrived around the middle of October; it was the Sears Roebuck Christmas catalog.
About the Author:
Cliff Hicks was raised in Eagle Creek Valley situated in the eastern side of Arizona between the Apache Indian reservation and the New Mexico State line. Cliff is a professional storyteller and tells personal stories from when he was five to ten years old. Cliff tells his stories all over Arizona from Folk Festivals to church meetings. His stories bring back nostalgic memories from his time and the story in this book reminds all of us when “The Wish Book” the Sears Roebuck Catalog was the only way to shop for most items. You can find out more about Cliff and his passion at www.storytellercliffhicks.com
My Review:
This book is a breathe of fresh air. I absolutely loved it. I loved it so much I even read it to my husband, and he even enjoyed it. If you are looking for a children's book that not only talks about Christmas but will take you and your children back to a more simple time then this is the book for you. It has a down home classic feel that we really enjoyed.
The book talks about the author's childhood. He takes us back to the day he and his siblings watched the mail truck pass their mailbox by when they were expecting their Christmas gifts to be delivered. I could really feel the disappointment in the words the author was trying to convey. And much to their delight and astonishment Christmas morning turned out to be a day that took them completely by surprise. This book was a very tenderhearted book that my family and I will look forward to reading every year.
**Disclosure** This book was provided to me for free from the author for my honest and unbiased review.
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