A fresh, if sometimes-sentimental, recounting of the first Christmas.
A children’s story of Jesus’ birth, told simply, reverently, and often entertainingly by an owl in the Bethlehem stable.
In Brizendine’s (Grandma Thoughts, 2013) creative Nativity story, the titular bird starts off confused as Joseph and Mary unexpectedly intrude into his home, but he’s soon touched by their loving relationship and becomes excited at the prospect of witnessing the birth of their child. After the baby comes, the wise owl keeps tabs on the family, surprised at the arrival of worshiping shepherds and the gifts of the wise men. The last time the owl sees the family is when they’re on their way to Egypt, but later he hears miraculous things about the baby: specifically, how he’s actually both man and God and born to a virgin mother. The owl’s final words seem as if they come straight from Brizendine herself: “I continue to tell my story because I have seen God!” They’re followed by a few related New Testament excerpts and an invitation to readers to come to know Jesus personally in their hearts. One of the strengths of this presentation of the Christmas story is its comprehensiveness, as it covers all major events from the stable to the story of Herod’s infamous slaughter of male infants—a heavy topic for a children’s book but true to the tale. Like many Nativity stories, however, the text adds romanticized details, such as a glowing, smiling baby Jesus, and not all readers may be fond of this fact. The owl’s commentary also seems awkward at times, but overall, its unique perspective and juvenile tone is spot-on for this book’s target audience of Christian kids. The medium and mood of the illustrations constantly changes; after some owl photographs at the beginning, remaining illustrations seems to alternate between sedate and cartoonish, with colored-pencil drawings and what seems like clip art. Each of the images is appealing and relevant to the storyline, but the book would have benefited from greater illustrative predictability.
A fresh, if sometimes-sentimental, recounting of the first Christmas.Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4908-9175-0
Page Count: 30
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
