[This December we commemorate the 200th anniversary of Clement Clarke Moore’s “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (well, maybe we do—see Monday’s post!). That was one of many Christmas stories I read to my sons when they were young, so this week I’ll AmericanStudy it and four other such holiday classics!]
Look, I’m
not going to pretend that I can devote three thoughtful paragraphs to Richard
Scarry’s silly but fun The
Night Before the Night Before Christmas (1984). Mostly I wanted to include
it in this week’s series for two relatively straightforward but good reasons:
it was maybe my sons’ favorite Christmas story for many of their young
childhood years; and I don’t think nearly enough people know that Richard
Scarry created a number of Christmas books set in his wonderful Busytown world. Like
every Busytown character, Mr. Frumble, the pig at the heart of Night Before, is a flawed and flustered
figure who means well, messes up most of the time, but ultimately gets the job
done (and thus saves Christmas in the process, natch). And like every Richard
Scarry classic, Night Before features
incredibly full and multi-layered illustrations that reward the kinds of
constant revisiting that come with a book that we read again and again, over
multiple nights in every holiday season. If you’ve got young kids, of your own
or in your life, you won’t find a better holiday read
Next
Christmas story tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What
do you think? Christmas or holiday readings you’d share?
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