Horrible Harry and the Holidaze

Horrible Harry #16

by Suzy Kline, Frank Remkiewicz (Illustrator)

The holiday season is here, and the kids in Room 3B are learning about all the different ways people celebrate. In addition to Christmas and Hanukkah, there's Kwanzaa, Three Kings Day, Korean New Year, and more. All the talk about holidays has everyone feeling festive. Everyone, that is, except Harry. He doesn't seem to care about the holidays, the class pet, or even the new student in class. It's clear that something is bugging Harry—but what could it be?

Genres: Chapter Books, Christmas, Childrens, Fiction, School, Realistic Fiction, Holiday

67 pages, Paperback

First published September 22, 2003

About the author

Suzy Kline, nee Weaver, was an elementary school teacher for 25 years and most of her books are based on the experiences she had while teaching. Suzy and Rufus got married and had two daughters named Jennifer and Emily. Now, more than 24 years after writing her first book, Suzy has traveled all over the United States helping children learn how to enjoy reading and writing.

Reviews

[Cynthia]

A short, quick read with another engaging story from Harry's class. In this installment, 3B is set to learn about each of the winter holidays celebrated by Harry's classmates including Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and Korean New Year's. But even though the mood is festive and anticipatory, Harry is not himself. Readers learn his grandfather is now living in a nursing home, and this is clearly affecting Harry. Harry's teacher, Miss Markle, finds a way to cheer Harry up and create a lifelong lesson for her students. Though it is subtle and folded in a classroom tale with which children can connect, the story's message is about traditions, and appreciation for what grandparents can teach.

[Savani]

In Horrible Harry and the Holidaze, Suzy Kline brings the spirit of the season to life with a heartwarming and educational story centered around Room 3B's holiday celebrations. This 16th installment in the Horrible Harry series explores different cultural traditions while highlighting the importance of empathy, inclusion, and friendship.

There’s a lot happening in Room 3B this time. A new student, Yousef, joins the class and he brings along his guinea pig, JouJou, which immediately adds some excitement. But not everything is cheerful: Harry isn't acting like himself, and his friends are starting to worry. As the students learn about holidays from around the world: Three Kings’ Day, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Korean New Year, and Christmas, they also learn to better understand and support each other.

The story is rich with hands-on classroom fun: slipping crayons into shoes, eating festive cakes, crafting kufi hats, and even exchanging Secret Santa gifts (with slime making a memorable appearance). One of the most touching parts is the field trip to Shady Pines, where Harry visits his great-grandfather and finds comfort and joy in family and tradition giving readers insight into what’s been weighing on him.

Kline does a fantastic job weaving humor, gentle life lessons, and cultural awareness into the story. The illustrations by Frank Remkiewicz add warmth and charm, making the experience even more enjoyable for young readers.

Horrible Harry and the Holidaze is a sweet, diverse, and festive chapter book that teaches kids to embrace differences and show kindness, especially during the holiday season. A great classroom or home read during winter break!

[Jana]

This early reader chapter book has Harry and his third grade classmates learning about five different winter holidays: Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Three King's Day, and Korean New Year. Miss Mackle has decided to have students' parents come in to tell about their family's cultural traditions surrounding each holiday. When it becomes clear that Harry is upset about something, Miss Mackle helps by arranging a holiday field trip Shady Pines nursing home to play Hanukkah games with his great grandfather and the other residents there. This book is a nice resource for elementary students to learn about different cultural traditions surrounding the holidays. There is a list of other resource books at the end for those that wish to find out even more.

[Debbie Dwyer]

Horrible Harry and the Holidaze is the best book ever in my opinion. Harry is a trouble maker. One reason you should read this book is there are so much learning about holidays in the book. You learn about Kwanza, Three Kings Day and Hannukah. For example, when the teacher gives Harry a gift that is crayons, Harry does not like it so he is in Meh emotition. Another reason you should read this book is Harry is also always in a lot of trouble. Like when he pouts about his wonderful gifts. For example, when Sidney got baby Jesus, Harry pouted since he did not get baby Jesus. Horrible Harry and the Holidaze is a facinating book in mu opinion. Horrible Harry and the Holidaze is so facinating.. Do you want to know how facinating the book is? Then read it! Kaia

[raccoon reader]

I had no idea my son had been reading Horrible Harry series at school so when I brought this home he was familiar with the series and loved it. Even though this book is a bit older it holds up well. I love the multicultural element to the holidays. Our community is pretty white and Christian so other other holidays get omitted from local festivities and events. Our son attends a private school several cities over to avoid the cultural whitewashing. He has friends who are Hindu, Jewish, secular, and Christian, who celebrate Kwanza and other holidays this time of year. It's a great school so he's used to talk about other holidays but it's still good to bring home books that represent more than just your slice of the cultural pie. Highly recommend!

[Stephanie Carter]

Harry was a lot less horrible in this book than any others I remember. (But maybe I just don’t remember them well—I haven’t read one in a while.) It talked about 5 different holidays celebrated in December, and I thought it was a tasteful way to include some holidays that are less well-known than Christmas in our society. It was cool it also included a visit to a nursing home. A lot more sweet moments than the typical Horrible Harry book.

[Jenny]

90% of this book is cute. It’s a fun exploration of winter holidays other than Christmas, which is important for kids to learn. The only part that fell apart for me was the chapter on Korean New Year. Song Lee’s mom’s broken English felt a little too stereotypical. Definitely a good one to use as a tool in the classroom for studying holidays around the world though. Really appreciated that she included a resource page for information on the different holidays!

[Maria]

Harry and his classmates in Room 3B have some important holiday celebrating to do___ And they're taking about Christmas! Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Three kings' Day and Koran New Year are holidays that some of the students celebrate. All of the kinds are feeling festive__ except for Harry. But Something is bothering
Harry.
Interesting book!

[Tyler]

DescriptionHarry and his classmates in Room 3B have some important holiday celebrating to do-and they're talking about more than Christmas! Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Three Kings' Day, and the Korean New Year are holidays that some of the students celebrate, and Miss Mackle wants everyone to learn about them.

[Courtney]

A very cute, fun, short, easy read that I really enjoyed revisiting since loving as a kid. I think it's great to teach children about all the different holidays there are to celebrate, and the excitement and immediate acceptance of everything by all the kids in the class is sadly still quite progressive for today.

[Katie]

A great easy chapter book that introduces kids to multiple winter holidays in an informative, fun and respectful manner while also encouraging them to lift up others (like Harry’s grandpa and other senior home residents) by sharing and teaching! Even has a bibliography/holiday resources section 👏

[Benedict Randhawa]

Something is wrong with Harry. Everyone is excited about the important holiday celebrating to do. But not harry.

[James]

This is an excellent book for readers who are moving up in Chapter books. It is very informative also. I enjoyed it. I am using it in my classroom.

[KaitandMaddie]

This was a nice overview of the holidays and next year I hope to get to more chapter books over the holidays.

[Vanessa Becerra]

Holidays have everyone feeling happy. Except Harry he doesn't seem to care for harry. I would use this by writing and explain what your favorite holiday.

[aem]

cute

[McKenna Schreiner]

Read with my class and my students loved learning about the different holidays!

[T1na Ba1ley]

Great book showcasing holidays I didn’t know much about.

[Danielle]

This is a beautiful story about multiculturalism, which also touches on Harry grieving his grandpa getting older.

[Mary]

Read aloud to my boys, they enjoyed it and I learned a few things about the different Winter Holidays too.

[Jan Z]

The class shares all their various winter holidays with each othet.

[Lauren Hightower]

This was 5 star for E and myself!

[Stacie Ellis]

This was a cute little book which provides information about the different holidays. She got 3 kings day wrong though, she was confusing the traditions with Saint Nicholas day. But it was still a very informative book for kids.

[Pooja Banga]

The holiday season is here, and the kids in Room 3B are learning about all the different ways people celebrate. In addition to Christmas and Hanukkah, there?s Kwanzaa, Three Kings? Day, Korean New Year, and more. All the talk about holidays has everyone feeling festive. Everyone, that is, except Harry. He doesn?t seem to care about the holidays, the class pet, or even the new student in class. It?s clear that something is bugging Harry?but what could it be?

[Katie Fitzgerald]

In this holiday installment from the popular Horrible Harry series, narrator Doug is worried about his best friend, Harry. Their classmates in room 3B are excited for the various Winter holidays they celebrate, including Kwanzaa, Three Kings Day, and Korean New Year, but Harry just isn’t himself. He hasn’t done a single horrible thing to anyone, and he’s alarmingly quiet during class. He’s not even interested in Zuzu, the new student from Lebanon. When the class learns that Harry’s great-grandfather is in a nursing home, however, they plan a special visit, and by the time Secret Santa rolls around, Harry is up to his old tricks once more.

What I like most about this chapter book is that it’s one of the few holiday titles that is truly appropriate to share in a public school or public library setting. Many children’s holiday books focus on just one of the major December holidays – Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s Day – thus always leaving out those who don’t participate in that particular celebration. This book, which already includes a cast of refreshingly diverse characters, takes a much more inclusive approach, allowing the characters’ previously established cultural identities to dictate which holidays will be discussed. As it turns out, Christmas (which is, admittedly, still basically presented as the “default” celebration), takes a back seat, allowing the reader to explore celebrations such as Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Three Kings Day, and Korean New Year. Each holiday gets its own chapter, and within those chapters, there are short lessons, breaking down for the reader the basics of how a given holiday is observed. These sections do sometimes interrupt the story, taking the reader out of the action and into a more didactic, textbook-like writing style, but they provide accurate and age-appropriate explanations for the ways different cultures celebrate their Winter holidays.

Fans of the series, especially, will also find themselves drawn into Doug’s concerns for Harry. Though Doug has proven time and again that Harry isn’t always so horrible, readers of the series know of Harry’s antics and will empathize greatly with Doug’s desire to see that interesting, if disgusting behavior return. The suspense about why Harry is in such a daze doesn’t last long enough in my opinion, and I wished for more interaction and plot development surrounding his strange new behavior, but the author’s decision to focus on the great-grandfather’s new home in the nursing home also worked well, especially when it comes to considering ways to reach out during the holiday giving season.

Horrible Harry and the Holidaze will resonate best with die-hard Horrible Harry fans. I think it also has a place in classrooms where kids celebrate a variety of holidays and teachers want to make sure not to give preference to just one.

[Dolly]

This is another interesting story in the Horrible Harry series by Suzy Kline and Frank Remkiewicz. We've read several of the books in this series and found them to be funny, short, and entertaining.

I like that different cultures and holiday celebrations are highlighted in this story. The explanations of the different traditions are interesting and are woven so neatly into the story that children might not even notice that they are learning something new!

We enjoyed reading this book together, even though we read it long after the holidays. We will be sure to read more of the books in this series soon.

[Marlee]

Both of my children, ages 6 and 9, really enjoyed this book. It was quick and easy to read. We've read many of the other Horrible Harry books already, so my children already knew the characters. They really enjoy reading about the children in this class. The stories are simple, but still fun. If I was just reading them on my own, I would find them to be quite dull. However, for my children's ages, they are great stories.

[Jerome Otte]

The kids of 2B learn about various different winter celebrations, although Harry is distracted by what later turns out to be his sick grandfather, so the class visits the place together, and Harry is soon back to his normal, horrible self. The story is unfocused, with an uneven emphasis for both of the plotlines.

[Kalli Olivar]

I just started this book and so far it's turning out to be a real good book.In this book a new kid is joning class room 3b the same room Harry is in.The new kidis ZuZu and he brought a tortoiseshell guinea pig his name is JouJou.While ZuZu is talking bout himself Harry is drawing.

[Katt Hansen]

It's December and that means lots of Holidays for the kids in 3B. I enjoyed learning about five different holidays. I thought the sub plot about Harry's Grandfather was very touching and well done. Overall an excellent book and one I would highly recommend.