Night Before Christmas

Yesterday I was going on and on about Thanksgiving and a book by the same name.  Today, another book.  Each year I purchase one Christmas book that really speaks to me.  It's our "family" book for the year.  And yes, there have been times I bought more than one, but that's because it was something irresistible. 

 This year, this is the one.  Hands down.  I know there is nothing new or different about the poem by Clement C. Moore.  We all  know the poem and can probably recite it in our sleep.  So why would I want this?  Well, the only thing that can be new or different is the illustrator.  Holly Hobbie is one of my absolute favorite illustrators.  When I was working in the library at school I would tell the kids that the illustrator can sell me a book faster than the author can.   What Holly Hobbie did was put her own stamp on the perennial poem and I couldn't resist.  Didn't even hesitate.  Didn't even take a breath.

 I'll probably get in big trouble showing you these pages but you just have to be sold on this.  I gasped and stroked this page, this gray, cold, nighttime expectant page.  How many times have you seen this?  A house in the dark, a snowman greeting the person coming into the driveway.  Your eye goes immediately to that lit tree by the door.  On the page it sparkles.  Here not so much.  You just have to trust me.

Holly Hobbie's new spin on the story poem was to see it through the eyes of a toddler, not the father.

I just want to stroke the pages.  I'd love to just be able to just touch her paint brushes.