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12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS by Lara Hawthorne Kirkus Star

12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

illustrated by Lara Hawthorne

Pub Date: Oct. 6th, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7112-4540-2
Publisher: Frances Lincoln

A veritable holiday feast for the eyes.

Hawthorne’s illustrations have a busy, folk-art style that will invite readers to pore over pages to find the animals, items, and people named in this old Christmas carol. Foil detailing on the cover art adds festive flair to the book’s design, but readers who associate Christmastime with wintry scenes will not find snowy landscapes here. An abundant use of light green in the grounds around the country house where the action unfolds lends a fresh feel to the picture book, perhaps offering a reminder that people in warm climes and in the Southern Hemisphere celebrate Christmas, too. Also welcome is the artist’s inclusion of a multiracial cast of people in later verses. Readers are invited to play an I spy sort of game with the pages, seeking out everything from the single partridge in a pear tree to the 12 drummers drumming at the book’s end. In most cases, the art, like the song itself, is cumulative in its presentation, though a marvelously spare double-page spread illustrating “five gold rings” eschews the finely detailed, more-distant scenes to instead present a close-up view of hands holding those rings laid out on small cloth decorated in red, green, and blue. This visual pause evokes the slower pace of that line in the song, clearly demonstrating the thoughtfulness with which Hawthorne approached her illustration.

Encore!

(full lyrics, author’s note, game) (Picture book. 2-12)