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Summary
Summary
Drawing on Christmas miracle tales and carols from around the world, Phyllis Root's cradle song sung by Mary for the baby Jesus is a lullaby for every newborn child.Exquisitely detailed art by Nicola Bayley makes this a gorgeous holiday gift book for families with (or expecting) newborns.The text is both reverent and humble, filled with a mother's love.
Author Notes
Phllis Root is the author of over forty books, almost all of them picture books, both fiction and non-fiction. Her middle grade novel, Lilly and the Pirates, is currently under contract. Aunt Nancy and Old Man Trouble won the Minnesota Book Award, and Big Momma Makes the World won the Boston Globe Horn Book Award. Root was awarded a 2006 McKnight Fellowship for her book, Lucia and the Light. She has taught at the Loft, in the Complete and Practical Scholar program at the University of Minnesota, and in Vermont College's MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Horn Book Review
Using images of animals and plants from Christmas carols and miracle tales, Root imagines the cradle song that Mary would have sung to the baby Jesus. The double-page spreads are reminiscent of illuminated medieval manuscripts, and each focuses on a single image from nature. The text and art are accomplished, but some may find the book too precious and contrived. From HORN BOOK Spring 2001, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
To go with reverent, lovely manger scenes, Root draws images from several Christmas carols and songs for a tender lullaby in which birds, livestock, a spider, even a cherry tree attend on the holy infant. Fireflies / Like tiny candles / Light the stable / Where you sleep. / Little fishes / In the river / Flash and splash / And laugh and leap. The pages are designed to resemble those of late-Medieval illuminated manuscripts; rows of exactly rendered, finely detailed specimens of moths and butterflies, berries and wildflowers, are placed beneath views of a drowsily cheerful Jesus (not quite newborn, but nearly so), with Mary, Joseph, and a variety of animals gathered round. All are framed by wooden beams and placed within wide, stone-textured borders. Similar frames enclose the blocks of rhymed, short-lined text. Like Norma Farbers All Those Mothers at the Manger (1985), there is no music to go with the lyric, but read aloud, the verse has a gently soporific rhythmand the art is virtuoso work. Exquisite. (Picture book/poetry. 1-3)
Booklist Review
Ages 2^-5. This delicately illustrated lullaby imagines what Mary might have sung to Jesus in the manger. Each page, addressed to the newborn, describes how an abundant world of animals and plants celebrates the child's birth: "Cherry tree / With branches bending / Offers cherries / Ripe and red. / Spider spins / A silken blanket, / Lays it on your / Manger bed." The addition of a musical score would have been a nice touch, but parents will likely come up with their own tune for this elegant, rhyming song that's expanded in glittering, detailed illustrations reminiscent of illuminated manuscripts. Gold borders filled with botanical ornaments frame soft, colorful nature scenes depicting joyous creatures mingling with the loving family. Although the author cites Christmas miracle tales as her inspiration, her soothing poem never mentions Jesus by name, emphasizing instead the love and astonishment that a new mother feels for her child. Young ones from diverse backgrounds will find themselves celebrated in this universal, joyful song. --Gillian Engberg
