I love this book because I enjoyed the author, Clement Moore’s writing. Moore uses clever words and rhyming to tell the classic story of what happens on Christmas Eve. Additionally, Moore’s writing gets readers anxious and excited about Christmas morning. When the narrator spots Santa in his home on the night of Christmas Eve, he describes his discovery by stating, “A wink of his eye and a twist of his head, soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread,” referring to Santa. I love that the author describes Santa as winking to the boy in the story, as if to ensure him that he’s in store for some awesome surprises on Christmas morning. The one feature I disliked about this version of “The Night Before Christmas” is the illustrations. The illustrations were published in 1980 and certainly look outdated. I mostly disliked the illustrations because the expressions on the characters faces do not match the story taking place. The characters faces throughout the book look stern instead of happy and excited like they should be according to the author’s writing. Besides the illustrations, though, I adore the book because it is a great story. The big idea of the story is to get children to look forward to Christmas morning, and for me growing up, it did just that. ( )

I enjoyed these illustrations set in the 1840s, with New Enland quilts around the borders. The illustrations were appropriately snowy! :) ( )