Book Description
for Christmas Is Here by Lauren Castillo
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
Words from the King James Bible announcing the birth of Jesus are paired with illustrations by Lauren Castillo that visually frame the Biblical story with a contemporary one of a young child visiting a Living Nativity in a twenty-first-century town. The child peers into the manger where Baby Jesus lies, and with a turn of the page time and locale shift: The contemporary town is gone, snow is no longer falling, a gray day has become a dark winter night, and shepherds are tending their sheep in the fields. On subsequent pages the shepherds are visited by an angel and then follow the light of a star to a stable, where a baby lies in a manger. With another turn of the page, the story is back in modern times as the child’s family and other members of their community gather at the Living Nativity and sing. Castillo’s expressive lines and softly colored palette brim with warmth and feeling. (Ages 2–5)
CCBC Choices 2011. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2011. Used with permission.