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Mary’s First Christmas by Walter Wangerin, Jr. Epiphany-OviedoELCA library section 9 C: Juvenile (gr. K-5), Holidays/Church Year. You may know Wangerin as a Lutheran magazine columnist and author of many books with religious themes for both children and adults. In this book while Joseph is away on a carpentry job, Mary spends the evenings telling the young boy Jesus about the circumstances of his birth – the entire Nativity story from the annunciation to the flight of the family to Egypt.
Mary’s story is related in chapters. At the end of each one is a little teaser about the next chapter to pique a child’s interest in what happens next. These chapters can be read one a night for four or five nights, perhaps as part of your family Advent devotions, or you can spend a half hour reading the entire book. And older child can read it on his own.
Wangerin is a skilled storyteller. He introduces Jesus by the nickname his mother calls him: Yeshi, short for Jeshua (Jesus). He also uses certain repetitive phrases such as calling Joseph “Joseph, strong and true” several times. Kids like this repetitive quality which makes the characters seem instantly familiar. He also uses several allusions to the crucifixion. In the beginning of the story, Jesus has a wound on his forehead and this forms a scar in the shape of a cross. (A similar device is used in the Harry Potter books when Harry receives a scar on his forehead in the shape of a lightning bolt). In the last chapter of this book Joseph returns and gives Jesus a gift of some carpentry tools of his own, some nails and two fresh, clean boards, and Jesus places one board over the other, and nails them together to make a cross. A parent can point out this foreshadowing to their child and ask the child to think of other stories in which foreshadowing is used. Foreshadowing is a hint to the reader that something is going to happen and that they should be watching for it.
This book’s illustrations often have extreme facial close-ups which puts the reader smack dab in the midst of the story. A very nice book, told from Mary’s point of view. ( )