Christmas in the Barn

by Margaret Wise Brown, Diane Goode (Illustrator)

Overview

From the bestselling author of classics like Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny comes a Christmas story sure to delight readers for generations.

With gentle, lyrical text from Margaret Wise Brown and heartwarming illustrations from Caldecott Honor-winning artist Diane Goode, Christmas in the Barn introduces young readers to the story of the first Christmas.

What child is this / who is born here / Where the oxen / stomp and peer…

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780060526368
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/09/2007
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	11.00(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.12(d)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

Margaret Wise Brown, cherished for her unique ability to convey a child’s experience and perspective of the world, transformed the landscape of children’s literature with such beloved classics as Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny. Other perennial favorites by Ms. Brown include My World; Christmas in the Barn; The Dead Bird; North, South, East, West; and Good Day, Good Night.

Diane Goode is the illustrator of more than fifty beloved and critically acclaimed picture books, including the Caldecott Honor Book When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant and the New York Times bestseller Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts. You can visit her online at www.dianegoode.com.

Date of Birth:

May 23, 1910

Date of Death:

November 13, 1952

Place of Birth:

Brooklyn, N.Y.

Place of Death:

Nice, France

Education:

B.A., Hollins College, 1932; Bank Street College of Education

Website:

http://www.margaretwisebrown.com

Editorial Reviews

A worthy addition to holiday shelves.” — School Library Journal

From the Publisher

★ 2016-08-17
Brown’s Nativity story, first published in 1952, is updated with new art from the illustrator of the popular Llama Llama series.The poetic, simple text follows Joseph and Mary as they are shown into the barn, where the animals wait. After the baby is born, the shepherds and wise men arrive, and an overhead perspective shows the whole cast of characters surrounding the newborn, “all safe and warm.” Dewdney’s striking, mixed-media paintings have a loose, post-impressionistic flavor, with some areas showing her brush strokes or the texture of the canvas surface. She employs a variety of perspectives and sometimes shows characters as dark, incomplete silhouettes. The faces of the animal characters have the most personality, while the faces of the humans are less distinct and sometimes even blurry. Two of the wise men have dark skin; the other people have light skin. Brown’s short, rhyming text is accessible and satisfying, with clever inclusions of well-known phrases from traditional Christmas carols, and her characteristic mastery of rhyme, rhythm, and repetition is on full display. Not all of her word pairs are exact rhymes, but they work nonetheless. One page includes the rhyming word pair grass/ass, which may require some explanation, as well as the unfamiliar word “kine,” an archaic plural for cows. Despite these minor quibbles, a new edition of any of Brown’s work is a gift worth celebrating. (Picture book/religion. 2-6)

Kirkus Reviews