• Grade: p to 12
• Reading age: 0

Winner of the Ann Connor Brimer Award

Great-great Aunt Olga has been a collector of Christmas postcards all her life. She's ninety-five, and many of the cards come from very long ago. The Yuletide season is the occasion to share her postcards and her Christmas memories with her favorite niece, Anna. Decked out in red, Aunt Olga is not averse to a little fun over tea, teaching Anna how to write her very own Christmas rhymes.

Delightful whimsical drawings and a warmly humorous text, along with fascinating historical postcards from the author's personal collection, make a wonderful and unique Christmas book, one that just might inspire readers to design and send Christmas postcards of their own.

Governor General Award winner Kevin Major has published 17 books, for both young people and adults. His first, Hold Fast, is considered a classic of Canadian young adult fiction, and was recently released as a feature film. No Man’s Land, about the Newfoundland Regiment in WWI, was published in 1995 to much acclaim. Major’s adaption has been brought to the stage by Rising Tide Theatre for more than a dozen seasons.A history of Newfoundland and Labrador: As Near To Heaven By Sea was a Canadian best-seller and finalist for the Pearson Non-Fiction Prize. Ann and Seamus, a verse novel, was shortlisted for a total of ten awards. It has since been turned into an opera, which has been performed internationally. New Under the Sun, the first in a trilogy of historical novels for adults and called “well written, nuanced, and compelling” by Canadian Literature, was nominated for an Atlantic Book Award.John Moss, writing in “A Reader’s Guide to the Canadian Novel,” has said, “Kevin Major is among the best Canadian writers of his generation. He has established himself as a figure of singular importance in our literature.”

Kevin Major's profile page

Bruce Roberts emigrated to Canada from England at the age of five. He is a self-taught artist whose imagination was fueled by E.H. Shepard as well as books about the Wild West. Known in North America and abroad, his vibrant drawing style can be equally whimsical and evocative. He has won numerous awards for illustration, including the Governor General's and Prix d'Odyssee awards for Fideles elephants, an anti-war Japanese children's classic about saving elephants. He lives in Montreal.

Bruce Roberts' profile page

• Winner, Ann Connor Brimer Award
• Commended, CCBC Our Choice (Starred Selection)

[The story] works beautifully, especially for ages six and up, partly because the cards themselves are so charming, and partly because the narrative, both humorous and tender, is based on a strong relationship between a witty old woman and her fiercely loyal great-great-niece.[...]Children as well as adults may be drawn to pore over the lost world depicted in the postcards, their distinctive artistic styles instantly evoking different decades.

Quill & Quire

Vintage postcards are a beautiful complement to the text...Highly recommended.

Canadian Children's Literature - CBRA

A combination of genuine vintage postcards and quirky ink-and-watercolor sketches...grace this bittersweet celebration of intergenerational friendship, Christmas and creativity.

School Library Journal

...the nostalgic tone and sweet intergenerational theme will win fans.

Publishers Weekly

...the beautiful story will be a Christmas classic.

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Aunt Olga’s Christmas Postcards