A Christmas Dozen:
 Christmas Stories to Warm the Heart
 Steve Burt
 (Reviewed by The Editor - Rebecca Brown)
 2000 Self Published, Norwich, CT USA
 ISBN: 0964928310


From the Christmas Story Pastor come twelve entertaining, inspiring & uplifting stories that convey the range of human experiences from battlefields of war & prejudice to the handicaps of blindness & greed.

In Christmas 1944 we watch over the shoulder of a soldier separated from his unit, alone on Christmas Eve, when he comes upon a barn somewhere near the borders of France & Luxembourg. Out of the door a tiny white kitten scampers & when the soldier has waited until he is sure there's no one inside, he enters. After he has a feast of baked beans & a chocolate bar up in one of the lofts, he falls asleep. When he awakens he sees a young mother nursing her infant & watches this gift of joy until for some reason he glances across at the other loft only to see a hollow pair of eyes also gazing upon the Madonna & Child below.

Simple, gripping, emotional stories filled with opportunities to transform the quality of life, anyone's life. Whether it's Matthew, just a kid, impatiently waiting for his grandmother to let him dash off to take his place at his school's Christmas pageant or Elvira Whipple, a feisty native islander, remembering a Christmas Eve nearly a century past or the title story about Old Otis, suddenly abandoned on an icy Interstate as his human family drives off forgetting him & his struggle to find shelter. Somebody else needs to share his nest in a sand barrel & when she shows herself, she's a cat & Old Otis, a dog himself, has to remember it's Christmas Eve.

Charming, well written & thought-provoking, I recommend A Christmas Dozen for stocking stuffers to be read & re-read every year.

A Christmas Dozen is available in paperback, hardcover, CD, & cassette. It is a finalist for ForeWord's 2001 AudioBook of the Year.

Other Editions: Audio Cassette (Abridged) | Audio CD (Abridged) as read by Paster Steve.

More from Steve Burt: North & South Fork Car-Top Canoeist's Guide; Activating Leadership in the Small Church; Fingerprints on the Chalice; Christmas Special Delivery; Raising Small Church Esteem; My Lord, He's Loose in the World!; What Do You Say to a Burning Bush?; Unk's Fiddle and Other Stories & The Little Church That Could.

See where Pastor Steve will be appearing in "Author Sightings"

Contact:
Steve Burt, 29 Arnold Place, Norwich, CT 06360
Or eMail him at PasStev@aol.com
(12/03/00)

Rebecca