Memory Magic: The Broken Ornament by Tony DiTerlizzi

Jack wanted this Christmas to be the best Christmas ever.

"I want MORE ornaments!

Let's get a bigger tree!"

To Jack, more is better, and truth to tell, a bigger tree mainly means more room for Santa to leave presents for him underneath it.

Mom and Dad chuckle and their holiday decor outdoes any previous Christmas, but Jack still wants more. He finds one dusty ornament box in the closet and hurries to add one more to his tree.

"Not that one!" Jack's mother gasps.

But Jack yanks the old ornament from the box and drops it. It breaks on the floor. A glance at his mom shows her beginning to weep softly.

"We''ll get another one," he says.

"We can't!" his mother says softly.

And as Jack glances at the pieces of the ornament, he sees a tiny fairy appearing from the shards. She says her name is Tinsel and asks Jack for his Christmas wish.

"The best Christmas ever," he replies.

And Tinsel summons up a magical display of Christmas plenty--glittering trees, prancing reindeer, marching elves, and snowmen tossing snowballs. It's everything that says Christmas to Jack. But then Jack asks Tinsel if she can restore his mom's ornament.

"No can do!" Tinsel tells him.

But the fairy can summon up a vision for Jack--a vision of his mother's grandmother giving his mom her precious ornament from her own childhood Christmases past. Suddenly Jack understands. Christmas isn't about more. It's about the love and beloved memories that we bring to it. And now he knows just what to do.

And it is the best Christmas ever, one to remember forever, in Tony DiTerlizzi's magical Christmas tale, The Broken Ornament (Simon and Schuster, 2018). Author DiTerlizzi, creator of the quaint and beloved Spiderwick Chronicles series and the Caldecott-winning book, The Spider and the Fly, touches the heart with her soft and lovely illustrations and theme of beloved family traditions as part of the real magic of Christmas. Says Publishers Weekly, "The author delivers a sound, easily relatable lesson about the perils of greed—and the essence of Christmas—as Jack devises a way to make amends in the story’s heartwarming finale."