The Christmas Hut: A Young Adult Reader

By MSE. Dzirasa

The Christmas Hut is a wonderful book that lends itself beyond the holidays, with childlike innocence, to all who experience it. It is the only book in its category that invites and welcomes children, as well as the young at heart, into the Christmas Holidays, and walks them into the New year, by taking them into a world quite different from their own, yet bound together by the joyful cheer of the season, as it rings the bells of goodwill towards all, on each page. Children are instantly transported into an environment where Christmas, though much different from theirs, equally possesses the happy ability to bring families and communities together, in a Seaside Town right on the equator, where the children of St Pauls Parish culturally and ethnically come alive within the pages; Skipping into living and bedrooms rooms, and hopping unto public library shelves, while bringing the story of their Christmas holidays, to children all over the world , in the happy quest to introduce and offer themselves in friendship, to kids who may be curious enough to find out how children far across the seas, in other lands, celebrate this great holiday that binds Christians together all over the world. The book comes in a Junior Reader as well as a Childrens Picture Book format, splattered colorfully with fun laden bold exciting illustrations, meant to connect the very young to the text. Trust me! Your precious ones will find themselves coming back to read this one-of-a-kind holiday book, long after the celebration is done. Seasons greetings to you and yours. Happy reading.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jan 17, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491848050

MSE. Dzirasa

MSE. Dzirasa is an Up and Coming Equatorial Author and Illustrator, with a Library Studies and Early childhood education and experience, in Ghana and the United States respectively. As a person born in the 60s, bred and educated along the Gulf of Guinea, within a family of Politics and Academics, she became a lover of the printed word at an early age. Her writing ability has always been prominent from Primary through higher education. She is also known to her friends on face book as the literary voice against corrupt leadership in her native land Ghana. She is an animal lover and Activist in matters concerning regulated and principled democracy for her people. But above all, she loves to write from life; especially for the Internationally young, so as to introduce, connect and share with them the richness, diversity, yet inclusiveness of the African culture, while proudly showcasing the hospitably woven fabric of the resilient and enduring texture of the ethnicity within which she was nurtured. The Christmas Hut appears on bookshelves as her first of many- to- come, originally created and illustrated reading/picture book series named, “Equatorial Reader”

Book preview

© 2014 MSE. Dzirasa. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 01/15/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4918-4804-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-4806-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-4805-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014900056

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Dedication

In Fondest, Ever loving and Most Cherished Memory

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Dedication

FOR

My Dearest Mother

Grace

Mother, Educator, Home Maker and Children’s Advocate

To her immense love for me and mine for her; And her nurturing within me which glows without; For my pride in her works and praise to her many love-laden sacrifices which has brought me thus far, I utter from a heart most fortunate with a voice most grateful. Farewell greatest of Ladies; sweet repose Princess of Africa. ‘Ayekoo’ Mother of mothers.

The First Children’s International Educative Reader Series

A (C.I.E.R.S.) Book

Created, written and illustrated by: MSE.Dzirasa

Dear Parents, Guardians, Educators and Caregivers,

My children’s books are literarily formatted to create cultural awareness and educate, while revealing and enlightening children of all ages about countries outside of theirs, by welcoming them to a literary world that has been plunged into obscurity, and more than often misrepresented in childhood literature. A world from which I was born and within which I acquired my early childhood developmental skills, complete academic skills as well as social skills. Within this obscure and underrated world, I matured from childhood into adulthood and as such wish to fling open literary doors hinged with rich cultural substance, for children growing up in foreign lands to experience, through my nonfictional storytelling, extracted from my very own joyful, culturally and ethnically rich childhood experience as a girl growing up in third world West Africa.

My ultimate goal therefore, is to capture the imagination of children, at their most formative, in order to install as well as instill the awareness and knowledge about how their peers grow up in this country far diverse in culture, basic amenities, and ethnicity than their own, situated on a continent very different from theirs and yet, are able to acquire substantial skills within socioeconomically limited environs than theirs. This is my personal effort to transform the generalized images of the African Child, as constantly portrayed by the media for the past decades as desolate, diseased and hopeless; which though true in some parts of the continent, has unfortunately been etched into the western child’s mind for generations from early childhood through adulthood establishing a stereotype which has been indestructible.

I hope my intercultural book series sheds a transforming light on the perception of both the adults and children worldwide who read them, by making a lasting difference and a conceptually positive notion, to lift this generalized stigmatism off the shoulder of the African Child. Within the pages of this book, I bring you Christmas in Ghana, as I experienced while growing up, to be enjoyed not only during the holiday season, but all year round. I believe the intercultural experience this book delivers will prompt you, your families and loved ones to look forward to the subsequent purchase, and further collection of my entire reader series, to add international literary flavor to your family, as well as school library collection.

Thank you.

MSE. Dzirasa:)

In Fondest, Ever loving and Most Cherished Memory

Teacher Grace

(Senior Superintendent Ghana Education Service)

Worked with City Council schools at Teshie and The Saint Paul’s Anglican School System in the Dadekotopon district of the Greater Accra Region respectively as an Early Childhood Development expert and irreplaceable Educator of Great Excellence.

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Part One

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It is almost Christmas day all over the world. On other continents, in other countries, lonely, dusty and forgotten Christmas trees, and boxes of shiny decorations, have long made their way from attics, cellars, store rooms and spare rooms into hallways, sitting rooms, family rooms and drawing rooms, where they immediately take their places on artificial and natural Christmas tree branches, leaving them decorated with red, gold, green, blue, and silver ornaments, dangling between endless shimmering caterpillar-like garlands, and strings upon berry-like strings, of beautiful dancing lights hidden in between dangling wisps of tinsel.

There is excitement and happiness everywhere in the world where Christians live. For even the very poor feel a sense of hope when Christmas visits the earth once a year. Yet within all these excitements, preparations and gathering of seasonal needful things, in a country far away from the very well-known ones on the world map, other children who believe in a Christmas that never ends, welcome Christmas all the same, in a very different but happy way. And nonetheless, all over the world, children are particularly being very good, and grown-ups despite being very busy, watch carefully, as Christians prepare for our Lord Jesus Christ’s birthday celebration.

In colder countries, Christmas tree farms are packed with trucks, lorries and minivans, filled with families, friends and loved ones, ready to pick up freshly harvested sweet smelling spruce and fir trees, as well as seasonal handcrafted evergreen wreaths