Four degrees at 8am. Clear skies and a slight breeze.
In the reading chair in our kitchen, huddled next to Mathilda the stufa in maiolica (see Ecco Mathilda, November 2007), AJ and B are fighting over The Story of Christmas by Jane Ray.
Jane Ray’s illustrations (Chagall meets Diego Rivera meets the masters of medieval illumination) combine with text drawn from the always-resonant King James version of the Bible to tell the Christmas story, starting with the Annunciation (that’s in March, remember) and finishing with the return of the holy family to Nazareth after their flight to Egypt.
This is really a stunning book, and if you’re stuck for a Christmas present, this could be it. The reading age is 4-8 years, but the illustrations are crammed with things to look at and talk about – animals, birds, fabulous patterns, figures doing everyday things in the background – and this means that reading it to a younger child (say, from eighteen months) becomes a voyage of fantastical discovery.
Somehow, Ray has managed to imbue her illustrations with a sense of depth, and a weight of meaning that seems rare among illustrators for children, but not out of place. And don’t get me onto the subject of the colours – just think of the vital glow of vitreous enamels.
Buy it. Read it every Advent, and I think you and your children will find something new in it every year. Get the hardback edition (sadly out of print but available on the second-hand market) - I don't think our paperback will last another year of such enthusiastic reading!
Reference: The Story of Christmas, Jane Ray, Orchard Paperbacks 1994, ISBN-13 978-1852139179
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Tuesday 11 December 2007
Book Notes No.2 : The Story of Christmas by Jane Ray
Four degrees at 8am. Clear skies and a slight breeze.
In the reading chair in our kitchen, huddled next to Mathilda the stufa in maiolica (see Ecco Mathilda, November 2007), AJ and B are fighting over The Story of Christmas by Jane Ray.
Jane Ray’s illustrations (Chagall meets Diego Rivera meets the masters of medieval illumination) combine with text drawn from the always-resonant King James version of the Bible to tell the Christmas story, starting with the Annunciation (that’s in March, remember) and finishing with the return of the holy family to Nazareth after their flight to Egypt.
This is really a stunning book, and if you’re stuck for a Christmas present, this could be it. The reading age is 4-8 years, but the illustrations are crammed with things to look at and talk about – animals, birds, fabulous patterns, figures doing everyday things in the background – and this means that reading it to a younger child (say, from eighteen months) becomes a voyage of fantastical discovery.
Somehow, Ray has managed to imbue her illustrations with a sense of depth, and a weight of meaning that seems rare among illustrators for children, but not out of place. And don’t get me onto the subject of the colours – just think of the vital glow of vitreous enamels.
Buy it. Read it every Advent, and I think you and your children will find something new in it every year. Get the hardback edition (sadly out of print but available on the second-hand market) - I don't think our paperback will last another year of such enthusiastic reading!
Reference: The Story of Christmas, Jane Ray, Orchard Paperbacks 1994, ISBN-13 978-1852139179
In the reading chair in our kitchen, huddled next to Mathilda the stufa in maiolica (see Ecco Mathilda, November 2007), AJ and B are fighting over The Story of Christmas by Jane Ray.
Jane Ray’s illustrations (Chagall meets Diego Rivera meets the masters of medieval illumination) combine with text drawn from the always-resonant King James version of the Bible to tell the Christmas story, starting with the Annunciation (that’s in March, remember) and finishing with the return of the holy family to Nazareth after their flight to Egypt.
This is really a stunning book, and if you’re stuck for a Christmas present, this could be it. The reading age is 4-8 years, but the illustrations are crammed with things to look at and talk about – animals, birds, fabulous patterns, figures doing everyday things in the background – and this means that reading it to a younger child (say, from eighteen months) becomes a voyage of fantastical discovery.
Somehow, Ray has managed to imbue her illustrations with a sense of depth, and a weight of meaning that seems rare among illustrators for children, but not out of place. And don’t get me onto the subject of the colours – just think of the vital glow of vitreous enamels.
Buy it. Read it every Advent, and I think you and your children will find something new in it every year. Get the hardback edition (sadly out of print but available on the second-hand market) - I don't think our paperback will last another year of such enthusiastic reading!
Reference: The Story of Christmas, Jane Ray, Orchard Paperbacks 1994, ISBN-13 978-1852139179
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