Elspeth Lorraine

Do you collect holiday books to display each year? Each year I pick out a special one to add to my collection and read it to my cats. They love it. They’ve told me. I didn’t have a pink Christmas book so I was excited to get this one! 

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Tiny Cactus lives on a bookshelf filled with famous titles and her friend teapot elephant. She owns a little girl and looks forward to the attention she gets from her each morning and the books she reads to her each night. One day Tiny Cactus learns that the house will be decorated for Christmas. Each room is decorated, sweet smells fill the house and she can’t wait for her turn to be decorated! But days go by and Christmas happens without Tiny Cactus ever getting decorated. She cries to the elephant teapot and he encourages her to keep believing in her dream. That night the window blows open, snow rushes in and waters the Tiny Cactus! In the morning the little girl is delighted to learn Tiny Cactus is actually a Christmas Cactus with beautiful blooms decorated/sprouted from her head! 

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Bits and Pieces: The artwork was made using charcoal, pencil, ink and Adobe Photoshop to create the digital illustrations. In the book Mom and Dad (or A. N.) did such a great job on interior design. And I don’t mean just for Christmas, I mean their house is so cozy and adorable. I need to call their decorator stat.

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Not Sure About: I felt like she should have had a name that wasn’t Tiny Cactus. I would have named her Caitríona.

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Favorite Part: The art spread when the lights are out and the magic of Christmas blows through the open window. A.N. gave us a nostalgic almost Polar Express vibe with the light reflected inside from the bright white snow. Also I really liked the cactus’s eyelashes and her pink cheeks that matched the family’s.