THE FIRST NIGHT

Creating illustrations with paintings on butternut wood, its delicate grain providing texture and its artfully roughened edges a weathered, rustic look, the artists use jewel-bright blues and rich earth tones to depict the shepherds following the star and the baby they find in the stable. Each of the tender, beautifully designed scenes would make a perfect Christmas card; here, accompanied by a spare, primer-simple text (``In the warm, dark stable there was a lamb. There was a cow, too, and piles of crisp, yellow hay''), they make a lovely introduction to the story, to be extended at will—the only explicitly religious note is a prefatory quote (``And the Word became flesh...''—John 1:14). (Picture book. 2-7)