When It Snowed That Night
Ages 5-8. Presented in picture-book format, these short poems are first-person expressions of visitors to the Nativity, representing the points of view of animals who followed the Christmas star, Mary, three queens who came late, and a mother who didn't follow the star but tended her own baby instead. Traditionalists will be surprised to find a sloth making its way to Bethlehem, but the sloth's poem is one of the more effective, beginning, "As everyone knows, / I begin to begin to travel / when the wind blows.&#xFF;20/ From bough to bough to bough, / Single-handedly I move. / Easy if you know how." Mathers' illustrations, painted in a naive style and reproduced in full color, vary from mundane to effective to striking. Recommended for larger collections.Carolyn Phelan