Lara HawthorneBesprekingen

beautifully illustrated Silent Night

English artist Lara Hawthorne, who previously created a beautiful picture book presentation of the classic Christmas carol, Silent Night, turns to another beloved holiday song in this lovely volume. The words of The Twelve Days of Christmas provide the text here, and are paired with Hawthorne's folk-collage style illustrations. A two-page spread at the rear of the book offers young readers a chance to search and find all of the gifts mentioned in the song...

I have something of a weakness for picture book presentations of Christmas carols, and I enjoyed Hawthorne's Silent Night, so when I discovered the existence of 12 Days of Christmas, I immediately sought it out. Unsurprisingly, I found it quite lovely, and enjoyed perusing it. My favorite picture books based upon this carol are the outstandingly beautiful ones created by Laurel Long and Jane Ray, although the versions done by Anna Wright, LeUyen Pham and Alison Jay are also gorgeous, so this one had some stiff competition. I don't know that I would rank it up with these others—it's solidly appealing, but doesn't stand out to me. That said, admirers of the artist's work will undoubtedly appreciate it, and I did like the fact that the human figures depicted were quiet diverse. If the reader can only seek out one or two versions of this carol in picture book form, I would strongly recommend the Laurel Long and Jane Ray titles. Otherwise, I recommend this one to picture book readers looking for engaging titles featuring The Twelve Days of Christmas, or Christmas carols in general.

Ah, a classic.

This is a great picture book with colourful illustrations to the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas. Get your singing voice ready, because this song is gonna be stuck in your head... so you might as well sing it! Who cares if it's not even October yet? SING ON.

I love the pictures in this book! I remember back in my youth I had a picture book with the song in it and it was so dull. It literally showed the exact pictures and I thought it was dumb (I was like... 4? I was already a critical reviewer. What can I say?). This book has more colours, more pictures and keeps you looking around the picture. Every time you will find something new. This may be too busy for some readers, but for me it was a fun outing.

This book does add something "new" to the story: It has some facts at the end about the song! So I was pleasantly surprised AND I learned something new.

Four out of five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

This picture book for children three and up begins, “There was once a small, quiet town that overlooked a brilliant blue ocean.” We then meet Alba, a bright orange reef fish in that water, who is fascinated by all the trash she finds, thinking it must be “treasure.” But she gets stuck inside a plastic bottle. Fortunately the bottle washes up on shore and is discovered by a little girl named Kaia who helps Alba get out of the bottle. But Kaia is dismayed by all the trash in the water, and declares “We’ve got to clean this up.”

Kaia organized the whole town to work together “to clean up the mess they had made.” Bit by bit, the sea began to get safer again for the creatures who lived in it. Kaia then felt it was okay to release Alba, who went back to her reef, “which was becoming busy and bright again.”

A closing double-page spread gives thumbnail descriptions of some of the creatures (“Alba’s ocean friends”) shown in the reef pictures. One additional page provides simple tips on “Taking Care of Our Oceans,” such as “Avoid using plastic products.”

The author, who is also the illustrator, uses stylized art work with bright colors, albeit with the unfortunate choice of printing at least half the text on a dark blue background, making it hard to read.

Evaluation: The rescue by Kaia is extremely unrealistic, as are some of the tips which are not really geared to the very young intended audience, such as “Never pour harmful chemicals down the drain.” Nevertheless, the story may help kids to understand that their actions and choices have consequences they may not have considered, and that it is good to think of others besides themselves.

My daughters (ages 8 and 5) and I had a blast reading 12 Days of Christmas by Lara Hawthorne. For fun, we sang the tune as we read the pages. The girls stopped on every page to find the items, animals, or people that matched the newest line of the song. The beautiful illustrations complemented the words, and both girls stayed interested from beginning to end. A note at the end includes information about this carol. Following that is an illustrated spread that challenges the reader to find everything from the song hidden in the scene. Both girls agreed the hidden picture pages were their favorite part.

Final Thoughts: My daughters loved this book and I thought it was adorable. We had fun singing the song and I feel confident we will revisit the book many times. 5 Stars!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this product via the Amazon Vine program. All opinions in this review are my own.

‘’And a partridge in a pear tree.’’

1995. I was ten years old when our English teacher brought us an all-new song for Christmas.
‘Forget Jingle Bells and Silent Night, guys. I’ve got a new one for you!’’ We were amazed and I am pretty sure the entire neighbourhood could hear us loud and clear. For five days, we were screaming the lyrics and enjoyed every second of it, because the nineties was a time for childish joy in the best way possible. And at the back of our heads, we were trying to fathom how can a property actually contain ladies, and maids, and lords, and pipers, and drummers, and half of the animal kingdom without any kind of disruption…

25 years later, I am still in love with this Christmas classic. This edition comes with beautiful illustrations by Lara Hawthorne, a hidden object game in the end and information on the origins of 12 Days of Christmas. And if you are an English teacher and want to create the cutest, brightest, most wonderful kind of mayhem in your classroom, this song is right there, waiting for you.

Many thanks to Frances Lincoln Children’s Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com

Beautiful, detailed, interesting pictures.
Heavy adult ocean clean-up message that will be hard for sensitive kids.

Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group, Lincoln Publishing Group and Netgalley for sending me an ARC

This is generally like an illustrated version of "Silent Night". The color and patterns of the illustrations worked really well with the lyrics that were posted. I gave this 3 stars for the sole reason that it was nothing more than that. Despite that, the book is something that would be great as a present gift to a child during Christmas.

This book celebrates the song, Silent Night, with beautiful pictures and one phrase of the lyrics per page.

I love,love, love this book...and the Sonoran Desert! The enchanting illustrations are both whimsical and realistic. Through rhyming text Hawthorne shows the interdependence of plants and animals in the desert by focusing on the Saguaro cactus. At the end of the book she adds a glossary, a life cycle of the Saguaro, and descriptions of the desert animals. I am always leery of supposed facts in children's books. There is a picture of a bobcat climbing a Saguaro. I didn't believe it, but a quick Google search proved Hawthorne correct! Then I noticed a thank you to the Sonoran Desert Museum, a place I know and respect. This book has been thoroughly researched. Even though this is a book for children, I learned several new things.

In this book it discusses the dessert, different animals, and the Saguaro. This book is a blend between social studies and science. You can learn about the climate and geography of the dessert while also learning about the animals and plants that grow. I like that at the end of the story about the flower their are descriptions of what the animals are that you see throughout the story and their also is a description about the Saguaro. The book teaches students a lot of new information.

This book would pair good with a lesson about different flowers that grow in different climates. You also can teach a class about the different animals that live in different climates. This book can benefit a science lesson or even a social studies lesson on geography.

This book is non fiction, beautifully illustrated, picture book about the Sonoran Desert life, particularly focused on the Sahuaro and its flowers. A book to keep in the classroom as an informational text for students to refer to learn about the desert.

Silent Night is one of my favourite Christmas Carols, so to have the opportunity to read/sing this to my grandchildren was a happy experience. The biggest reason I liked this book more than others I have read before was the illustrations. I appreciate that the people in the scenes here are portrayed as the Middle Easterners that they were, with dark skin, rather than Americanized Caucasians that my grandchildren have grown up with. We have talked a lot in Sunday School about Mary and Joseph being refugees from the Middle East, so this presents that well. I loved the black background, it is night after all, and how the settings and characters stood out so well against it. I loved singing this to my granddaughter as she looked carefully at the illustrations. This would be a great addition to a family Christmas library as well as to any church or Sunday School resource library. This only made me love this song even more. The publisher, Lincoln Children's Books, generously provided me with a copy of this book upon request. The rating, ideas and opinions shared are my own.

English artist Lara Hawthorne turns to the classic Austrian Christmas carol, Silent Night (Stille Nacht in the original) in this lovely new holiday picture-book. Using the words of the carol as her text, she tells the story of the Nativity in her artwork, which depicts a diverse range of dark-skinned people starring in the various roles. A brief afterword gives a history of the carol's creation, and the full lyrics (in English)...

This edition of Silent Night is an engaging presentation of the carol, one that is particularly notable for its artwork. Beautiful in its own right, with a folk-collage feeling that I found very appealing, it is also quite welcome in its depiction of a more diverse cast of characters. I can see how readers wanting a less European-looking Nativity story would gravitate to Hawthorne's retelling, although I do have to chuckle at the frequent claims I have seen, in online reviews, that this is a more "authentic" depiction, given the fact that the peoples of the Levant are no more African (which many characters here look to be) than they are European. Leaving that issue aside, Silent Night is one I would recommend to anyone looking for beautifully-illustrated picture-book presentations of Christmas carols.½

This picture book tells the nativity story through pictures and lyrics from "Silent Night." It's a very nice concept, and I love love love the illustrations, which will go a long way to de-Europeanize this story for your kids, if that is a thing you would like to do. This setting is very clearly the middle east, and the people in the story are very clearly of northern African, Middle Eastern, and Asian descent, as they should be. Recommended. Another for the nieces.½

This book is all about the illustrations. It’s the lyrics to the traditional christmas song so the wording is probably not a surprise. The illustrations are amazing, and not just because the people are illustrated as POC instead of a white. It’s so refreshing to see that in this story. Normally Jesus, Mary, and Joseph are epictured as a white family, and here they match the story setting. Plus, I love the story of how the song came to be that is included at the end. Great job!

I loved the illustrations in this picture book illustrated the beloved Christmas carol. While Mary and Joseph look more African than Jewish, the illustrations are charming, reflecting the peace of Christmas. I would eventually like to purchase my own copy, but for now I'll keep this one until it expires so I may enjoy it for this Christmas season. This was a "read now" title at NetGalley. I downloaded it with the expectation of writing an honest review. I would eventually like to purchase my own copy, but for now I'll keep this one until it expires so I may enjoy it for this Christmas season.½