A Season for Miracles: Twelve Tales of Christmas

Dear Canada

by Sarah Ellis (Contributor), Sharon Stewart (Contributor), Julie Lawson (Contributor)

Twelve original holiday stories from the top children's writers in the country! What an incredible gift book for Dear Canada fans! The twelve stories in this treasury are set around Christmas time and feature the young girls from a dozen previous Dear Canada books. Readers will be thrilled to reconnect with their favourites and get a glimpse of each character's life a year or so after the events in the actual diary are over. Anyone new to the Dear Canada series will be introduced to characters so compelling, they'll want to read more.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Christmas, Childrens, Canada, Historical, Short Stories, Fiction

247 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2006

About the author

Writer, columnist, and librarian Sarah Ellis has become one of the best-known authors for young adults in her native Canada with titles such as The Baby Project, Pick-Up Sticks, and Back of Beyond: Stories of the Supernatural. In addition to young adult novels, Ellis has also written for younger children and has authored several books about the craft of writing. Praised by Booklist contributor Hazel Rochman as "one of the best children's literature critics," Ellis "writes without condescension or pedantry. . . . Her prose is a delight: plain, witty, practical, wise."

Ellis was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in 1952, the youngest of three children in her family. As she once noted, "[My] joy in embroidering the truth probably comes from my own childhood. My father was a rich mine of anecdotes and jokes. He knew more variations on the 'once there were three men in a rowboat' joke than anyone I've encountered since.

Reviews

[C.A. Simonsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this collection of Christmas stories, all set in British North America/Canada pre-1900, so that I would have a short tale to read to my younger students this December. Each of the twelve tales was enjoyable.

For fans of history, fans of tradition, or for parents who still read to their children, A Season For Miracles is a great purchase. Read one or two aloud to your kids each Christmas or hand the book over to the children.

A very early Merry Christmas to you!

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the perfect book to read while travelling to and from work. Short, heartfelt stories about characters I have read about and some I am looking forward to reading. The Miracle theme was very well done and the lesssons were always clear.

A great inclusion to the Dear Canada series and a perfect read during the busy christmas period.

[Jenna Leigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is kind of a nice little book to read around Christmas. The stories aren't very in-depth, and unless you've got a super awesome memory you won't remember which book in the Dear Canada series each girl is from. It's still worthwhile to have it in your Dear Canada collection, just not very memorable.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this collection of stories from the Dear Canada series. Even though these stories are really excerpts from the complete books, they felt like complete stories. I am looking forward to (re)reading the full books from this series.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fun to go back and read some short excerpts from the lives of girls I've already read about. It was a nice addition to the series as a whole.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read another set of Dear Canada Christmas stories back in 2020 but I don’t remember enjoying that collection as much as I liked this one. I thought the majority of the stories in this collection were really sweet. There were a couple featuring dogs (which I always love to read about) and several of them were surprisingly faith-filled which I liked. That cat in the one story must have been VERY grumpy after being thrown down a dumbwaiter and covered in mashed up turnips!

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this series because these fabulous authors each use their own unique styles of writing to really breath life into the characters!The Dear Canada series also puts historic events in our nations History into a perspective that is easy for everyone to understand and actually enjoy learning about! I really enjoyed this collection of Christmas tales and how they took exerpts from all the best books. The one thing about this book is that it made me want to pull out the rest of my Dear Canada books and re-read them alll!!

[Molly]

This entire series is a wonderful way to learn history or teach it to adolescents. I find today's generations seem to recall more when they learn through other people (pop songs, celebrity gossip, etc.), so what better way to teach history than through someone else's perspective? Yes, "authentic" diaries would be "better", but would the language really hold the modern student's attention? Did the diary writer know what WOULD be important in the context of history? Probably not.

[Shanelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

"A Season for Miracles" is the perfect book for any fan of the Dear Canada series. I really enjoy reading this book, especially during Christmas time, as it allows me to once more experience my favourite characters stories. These are short stories (about 20 pages each) and each are a continuation of the stories previously in the series. They are set during the following Christmas from when their stories last left off.

[Shanelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Season for Miracles is another book from the Dear Canada series, this time providing short stories about characters from previous Dear Canada books. It is a wonderful book to read, especially around Christmas time, and even more wonderful for Dear Canada readers who never wanted to say goodbye to their favourite characters.

[Meaghan Steeves · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of stories that got me into the holiday spirit. The best thing I can say about them is that they are written so well that even if you haven't read the diaries that preceded them (there was one among the collection I have yet to read), that did not matter because you felt like you knew these girls and the other characters based on the author's descriptions.

[Stacy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really did enjoy this book, I love how they included 12 different stories from 12 different girls, to compare to "12 days of Christmas" it really is a great book to have during the christmas time! it makes you enjoy the Miracles Of Christimas! :)

[Macklin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Twleve lovely stories that are continuations or extensions of previous Dear Canada books. Each are centred around a Christmas miracle.

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved to know what happened to the girls after the book was finished!

[Highjump · Rating 4 out of 5]

delightful seasonal stories, fun way to get into Christmas spirit

[Natasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book every year around Christmas time (or I try to)!

[Little Seal]

Christmas in March? Yes, because it was a Dear Canada book I actually found in the wild (at my library!) and I wanted to see how it was.

Since I have never read any of the Dear Canada books, I didn't know any of the girls (they are not new characters, though one character did not have their own diary but instead was a main character in another girl's book). But the book did a good job setting up the information I needed to know who they were. This is more of an extension of the existing girls than a retelling. I don't believe it ruins anything for someone like me whose first book might be this one.

[Denise Tarasuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Season for Miracles was wonderful. I love stores about Christmas past especially if they are seen through the eyes of young girls that have written in their journals. This treasure includes Twelve Tales of Christmas that will be sure to warm your heart. It is a must read and perfect for the Christmases to come.

[Holly L'Heureux · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so fun. There was just the right amount of information from each of my favorite characters through the series so far!

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful compendium of memories!

[Meghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection contains most of the characters from the earliest eras covered by the series. While the editor's note describes it as "the Christmas after," that is not the case with two of the stories.

[Yeslech · Rating 2 out of 5]

In hindsight I would have preferred to read a full book instead of 12 individual stories which seem to be taken from other books. It's hard to keep track of the characters -- side characters especially.