‘Twas the Night Before Christmas
By Clement C. Moore
Illustrated by P.J. Lynch
Walker Books
November 2023, pp32, £7.99
9781529504354
Reading age: 3+ years
A beautiful retelling of this much-loved Christmas poem. Readers follow St Nicholas’s arrival and departure, delivering presents on Christmas eve to everyone in a small snow-covered village. Any settings looking to explore traditional Western stories attached to Christmas will find this a lovely addition to their classrooms.
As well as informative about the story of St Nicolas, the poem provides a wonderful introduction to lyrical verse, and will help build vocabulary around Christmas.
The illustrations are distinctive and atmospheric, and rich in detail. Readers will be transported back to an old-fashioned, 19th century Christmas eve, complete with smouldering fires, fresh gingerbread houses, stockings and foliage decorations.
The energy and movement in the illustrations mirror the lilt of the poem, helping build excitement and momentum towards the final stanzas.
All readers will enjoy poring over these pictures again and again.
A Christmas Story
By Brian Wildsmith
Oxford University Press
August 2021, pp23, £7.99
9780192777768
Reading age: 3+ years
A beautiful reprint, first published in the 1980s, this is a wonderful yet unusual retelling of the original Christmas story. Readers follow Rebecca and her little donkey as they set out to find the donkey’s mother.
Meeting all the main characters along the way, Rebecca and the Donkey finally find the Donkey’s mother in a stable with Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus, before they all return back to Nazareth through Egypt.
This retelling from an alternative angle will intrigue and entrance readers. The narrative builds suspense through clear and simple vocabulary, accessible to young readers. The text supports children’s knowledge and understanding of the Christmas story, introducing the themes and concepts of the Christian elements of Christmas.
Readers will be particularly engrossed in the wonderful stylistic illustrations which capture the atmosphere, awe and wonder of this story through unusual techniques, often using mixed media to great illustrative effect. Children will love to return again and again, delighted by the quirky details and recurring motifs that fill the pages.
Its Christmas Everywhere
By Hannah Barnaby
Illustrated by Joao Fazenda
Phaidon Press
September 2022, pp26, £14.95
9781838665395
Reading age: 2-5 years
This is a lovely, versatile board book that showcases traditions and celebrations of Christmas from around the world. When standing upright, the book can open out to create a tree-shaped, free-standing display, which will delight and engage children through its carousel-like effect.
Each double page from the book features a different tradition for celebrating Christmas from across the world. Celebrations from ten countries feature, for the ten days before Christmas, including from Australia, Ukraine, Greece, Ethiopia, China and Peru, among others.
The text is simple and accessible, with clear and bright illustrations.
The book itself is strong and sturdy, with an integrated magnetic system to keep it open, and so free-standing. It will be able to survive lots of interest from small hands, and readers will love to explore the content as well as the engineering for how it stays open.
This is a brilliant and informative addition to any setting looking to explore the diversity of Christmas celebrations around the world.
