The Christmas Elf

The Christmas Elf is a rhymed fairy tale picture book that will engage the imaginations of young children from about age 4 to age 8. Early readers will enjoy reading this book. It is well known by researchers in child development that exposure by preschool children to nursery rhymes and rhymed stories is developmentally advantageous in numerous ways: speech and cognitive development, reading comprehension, vocabulary development and encouraging creativity. Rhyming patterns evoke a concentrated awareness in the child through the language chosen and arranged for its meaning, sound and rhythm.

Ginger Covert Colla is a licensed Kindermusik educator, a poet, composer of children's songs and an author of children's story books. She particularly enjoys writing rhymed verse for her stories. The Christmas Elf was written for her Kindermusik students and presented during class story times for the holiday season. She is currently collaborating with Illustrator, Judith Gosse, to bring her creations to life visually. In addition to her early childhood teaching, she is a career music educator with degrees in music education, and both a Master of Arts and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Choral Conducting. Dr. Colla has taught public school music at all levels from elementary school through university.Judith Gosse's mom insisted that her first word was "pencil." After studying fine arts at the University of Kansas and UC Berkeley, Judith enjoyed a successful design and illustration career in San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Washington DC. She worked as an art director, designer and illustrator on major accounts such as Apple, HP and Oracle. She now lives and works in her Illinois studio where she has realized her lifelong dream of Illustrating books for children.