THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY
illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats
To the words and pa-rum beats of a popular Christmas song (by Katherine Davis, Henry Onota and Harry Simeone), a sun-flecked procession lays gifts before the King; the drummer boy, with no gift to bring ("I am a poor boy too"), plays on his drum, plays his best while silhouettes of ox and lamb paw on the sunset horizon, sees, sidelong, the Child smiling quietly, then marches off in the deepening lavender and rose and gold. Collage that's characteristically Keats, drapery that's almost El Greco, detail and design that draw the eye to essentials, expressive skies —a glowing entity of certain appeal to children who know the song, with a right-hand piano accompaniment appended.