CHRISTMAS

Shaped like a gigantic gift tag and containing some highly simplified flat forms and a lot of flat color, this might be Baby's First Big Nativity if you can bear the also-flat verse: ""The shepherds stand a little off./ 'A stable with a manger-trough/Where the animals are fed./ Can that be the baby's bed?'/ On tiptoe they step in and see/ A lowly family of three./ Mary and Joseph and Jesus the son./ Glory now for everyone."" Blessed the child allowed to look and not forced to listen--although one might still wonder if the cute ""paper doll angels"". (the jacket) quite rise to the occasion.