When searching for a Christmas book for Juniper, Lindsay found this one. I am a huge fan of The Polar Express, both the book and the movie (and Josh Groban’s songs on said movie). But I feel like that would have been the “expected” book to review for the blog.

If you are a regular reader you know that I look for the more obscure and lesser-known items and books. I do feel that this book carries similarities to the tone and story of the Polar Express tho.

It tells the story of all of creation across fields, deserts and oceans anticipating the arrival of Jesus. Each animal, tree star and flower sings praise to the newborn baby. The long awaited son of God has been born. Throughout the book you can feel the intensity and excitement rise as the song gets louder and more joyous.

This new book is going to become a yearly tradition in our house, I can tell this already. I read it for the first time to Juniper this morning and I couldn’t think of a more appropriate book to read her this Christmas season.

Book Construction:

The copy we have is a board book, but it is also available in hardcover and paperback.

Illustration:

All of the illustrations in the book are handmade (rather than digital) by Alison Jay. There is such a natural and organic character to each illustration that is beautiful. Each page is basically a work of art. The varying layouts make each page interesting and compelling.

Typography:

I love that it is simple and very readable. There is consistent type placement and left aligned text for easy and quick page turning. Each spread has just enough words to focus on the images but not too many to seem long and boring.

Number of Reader Voices:

One narrator and potentially a singing voice if you want to be fancy.