Mary's First Christmas

Rating:
Summary: An unusual but moving way to tell the Christmas story.
Review: I've been collecting children's Christmas books for years, but this is one of the most beautiful and original ones I have ever seen. Religious Christmas books don't have a lot of variety in the story, of course. They tell about the birth of Jesus and no matter how beautiful the story is, everyone tells it pretty much the same way. The only thing that usually distinguishes one nativity book from another is the quality of the illustrations.

The illustrations in this book are nice, although nothing spectacular. But Walter Wangerin has found a unique way of telling the story. He has Mary tell the child Jesus (he looks about six or seven) about how he was born. It's a wonderful approach because every child loves to hear about the day he or she was born, and this gives them a strong identification with Jesus, and creates a touching sense of the warm relationship between Mary and her son that is usually missing from nativity stories. Her emphasis in telling the story is on all the love he was given at birth Ñ from God, from Mary and Joseph, from the angels, and from shepherds and kings.

The other unique quality of this book is that throughout the story, in subtle ways (but directly enough so that my six-year-old was aware of it) the author reminds you that Jesus will die. Mary tells the birth story to Jesus to comfort him when he is treated cruelly by other children (and she seems well aware that this will not be the last time he is treated horribly), and in the final illustration, Joseph is teaching Jesus some carpentry skills and we see Jesus joining two pieces of wood together in the shape of a cross. It is a sad undertone, one you don't usually find in Christmas books (and one many parents may prefer to avoid at Christmas time). But the context is this: at his birth, God and the world gave Jesus love, and through his death he returned that love. At Christmas, we usually focus on the joy not the sorrow, but I found this book very moving, and so did my daughter. We have dozens of Christmas books in the house, but over the past few weeks she's been asking for this one almost every day.

Rating:
Summary: "Mary Christmas"!!
Review: This book is quite wonderful. My kids loved it! The illustrations are very nice and the story of the first Christmas is well told. Entertaining for both parents and kids. The glimpse into the life of Jesus as a small boy is very well done, especially considering that we know nothing of his childhood from the Scriptures, except for his birth and the story of when he was thought lost but was in the temple. The story brings Mary and Jesus and even Josheph alive for the reader.

Rating:
Summary: Good idea, but....
Review: This was an innovative and novel way to retell a familiar story, however Mary came off more ditzy than maternal. She "giggled" and "pinched Joseph's nose" when springing the news on him that she's pregnant (quipping that she is "fat" because of reason that "wiggles deep inside" her) and she is just dumbfounded when Joseph is stunned and angry over her condition. Then when her parents try to comfort her, she tells them both "leave me alone," behaving like a pouty teen rather than the woman chosen to be the mother of mankind's savior.

The section on Mary's visit with Elizabeth was much better --- very touching and it had a very "real" feel to it. But she was back to shouting and stomping about in Bethlehem, giving birth by "pushing so hard" she could force "a boulder up a hill." Again, not quite the image of the Blessed Virgin I want to share with my kids at Christmastime.

Overall, the book is good but it is not "a tradition" in our family for the above reasons. Try "A Very Small Miracle" for a nice "new take" on the ancient tale.