Julie Bookman

If the holiday crunch is making you a bit weary, the best medicine might be to gather the kids around the Christmas tree for a sweet holiday story. Or two. The new bounty of children’s books is filled with holiday-themed treasures. We’ve sifted through them in order to recommend some favorites; the list below is organized by age recommendation. Whether for your own family, or for gift-giving, these 2017 arrivals are all sure bets.

Courtesy of Peachtree Publishers Credit: Handout Credit: Handout ‘Eek!: A Noisy Journey from A to Z.’ As tykes greet letters from A to Z in this playful picture book by Julie Larios and illustrated by Julie Paschkis, they get one word befitting each letter that’s especially fun to say. “Oops” for “O” and “varoom” for V, for example. Fetching ink-and-gouche art dances across the pages, offering lots to ponder.

If you’ve been hitched a good while, say, 41 years (like me), and you devour this fat new book (as I did), from the long-marrieds Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue, while reading it, you’re likely to behave like one of those bobblehead toys, ceaselessly nodding your head up and down. Because you get it, you’ve been there, heard it, done it, soldiered through and survived — and, lo, come morning, that awful argument the night before now seems a little dopey.