Product Description

Experience the true spirit of Christmas with this rich celebration of the Christmas story. With words from the King James Bible, the nativity story is brought gloriously to life with illuminated pages of silhouetttes set against glowing colours. The beautiful design and gold highlights throughout make this a true classic and the perfect Christmas gift.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12113 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 24 pages

About the Author
Jan Pienkowski is a celebrated illustrator of children' s books. He has won the Greenaway Medal twice - for his illustration of Joan Aiken's The Kingdom Under the Sea and for Haunted House. Jan Lives in London

Customer Reviews

Breathtakingly beautiful - the most Glorious nativity book of all time.
I saw this book in a bookshop and was completely knocked out by it - all other nativity picture books pale in comparison. This is without doubt the most striking book of any genre that I have come across for a long time. Every aspect of the design is absolutely stunning from beginning to end. The illustrations are bold yet detailed silhouettes set against bright backgrounds in strong rich colours. Each double page has one of these large strong images with additional silhouette imagery set into silver foliage of Christmas plants. The text is straightforward yet classic, about 8 lines worth per page in a large font, and this is the perfect balance of story depth making the book worthwhile for all ages yet keeping the text light enough to be an attractive picture book. The feel of this book is an expertly-judged mix of the traditional and classic with a modern exuberance and a hint of humour in the lively silhouettes. Buy it for your children and it will be treasured by their children in turn. This book deserves not just five stars, it is six star and one of those is the Star of Wonder.

Magical!
I've never reviewed before but this has just arrived and I am so blown away by it I really had to recommend it. We have bought it for our daughter who is 11 months old as it is her "first Christmas" and it is so perfect - the illustrations have a simplicity in the silhouettes that she will enjoy now but also an intricacy that she can grown to appreciate. The text is the King James Bible so it is told briefly and simply but with a poetry that again will continue to inspire. This is an absolute classic and I am delighted.

Have you actually looked at these illustrations?
My eight month old daughter was given this by her great aunt. I was horrified. Yes the illustrative style is sublime, the feel of book is delightful.

But the graphic content for young children is abhorrent. Skeletons hanging from gallows, and young children being driven up steps to God know what end (there are few punches held in the narrative concerning Herod). I could not get any further than a few pages.

Although I see the artistic and literary merits of this book, I found it a sickening and distasteful gift to give to a young child, and her newish mother.