THE TWELVE PRAYERS OF CHRISTMAS

The Nativity is retold by 12 different characters, each offering a rhyming, first-person view of the events of the special night. The narrators include all the familiar characters—Mary, Joseph, Wise Men, etc.—as well as other less-expected choices, such as the donkey, a lamb and the Christmas star. The text concludes with the Christ Child’s own commentary on the scene of his birth. Bernardin sets each poem within a double-page spread illustrating that character’s part of the story, with dramatic lighting and deep, jewel tones adding excitement to the atmosphere. The poems convey much of the deep feelings of the event, but they all use the same rhyme scheme and tone, which doesn’t help to delineate the different characters. Still, Sunday-school teachers and Christmas-pageant directors will find this useful. (Picture book/religion. 4-9)