Books with author Francis P. Church

Share the magic of this Christmas classic, complete with beautiful full-color illustrations, based on a real letter to Santa Claus and proving that he is, once and for all, real. In 1897, a young girl wrote to The New York Sun asking whether Santa Claus truly existed. The paper's response, written by reporter Francis P. Church, has become a beloved holiday literary tradition. An original approach to a children's classic, this captivating book creatively reinterprets that heartwarming letter about the truth behind Santa Claus and Christmas. It is accompanied by charming Victorian artwork. Joel Spector is an artist and illustrator known for his elegant pastel images. His work appears regularly in magazines and newspapers including Business Week, Newsweek, Good Housekeeping, and The New York Times.

In 1897, a young girl wrote to The New York Sun asking whether Santa Claus truly existed. The paper's response, written by reporter Francis P. Church, has become a beloved holiday literary tradition. An original approach to a children's classic, this captivating book creatively reinterprets that heartwarming letter about the truth behind Santa Claus and Christmas. It is accompanied by charming Victorian artwork. Joel Spector is an artist and illustrator known for his elegant pastel images. His work appears regularly in magazines and newspapers including Business Week, Newsweek, Good Housekeeping, and The New York Times.

Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus Dear Editor— I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus? Virginia O’Hanlon Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished. Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that th

As you should have guessed by the title, this is not the standard bedtime story with a princess and a prince and an evil stepparent and some sort of magic spell. Not one castle, nor trolls, not even an enchanted forest is tucked with loving care into this bedtime story. To be totally honest about the whole shebang, it's not so much a bedtime story as a bedtime epic event. An explanation may be in order right about now. There are 30 Adventures in this saga, to be read in order as bedtime stories. No skipping around, mind you, because it will make even less sense if you do that, so when you get to the Temple of the Belchmonkeys and your mind is not totally prepared for it, well, that's a whole different bucket of pickles altogether. And you could rip through more than one story in a night, but that might just make your kids loopy. 30 Adventures, 30 nights, so you're pretty much covered for a month. Now, somebody's going to screech that some months have 31 days (thanks, May and October and you other troublemakers for screwing this up) and so you have a day left over. And there's some real hollering going on about the February problem, and how if you read this story during that month, even during a leap year, you still have extra story left over. The thing is, the story is 30 nights long because it's a nice round number (unlike 31, which is prime, for crying out loud) and that's how long the story takes to tell. So there. The important idea is that this is an interactive story. Not a passive story where your kid lays there like an unfortunate lump on the mattress and you yammer on until you bore the poor child to sleep. This story has a narrator reading the action lines (that's you, sport). There are also 21 different voices in the tale, all of which you'll have fun doing. Even better, let your child read along and read a voice or two. The full list of voices is on the next few pages, plus what we think they sound like,