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bet27's review
4.0
A beautiful version of the nativity story with raw, poignant, exuberant illustrations. The author acknowledges the hardships Mary faces, yet keeps things simple enough for kids to understand.
panda_incognito's review
5.0
This Nativity picture book tells the story of Jesus's birth from Mary's perspective, incorporating fictional details while remaining faithful to Scripture. The illustrations are radiant, striking, and occasionally strange, and they suit the poetic text, which does not shy away from the challenging elements of the virgin birth. Most Nativity storybooks sanitize the story and strip it of its divine strangeness, but this one embraces the whole biblical account without any obfuscation or sentimentality, conveying through art and text the tremendous weight of knowing that your newborn baby is God-made-man. Elements of this may appeal most to adults, but children who are raised on the biblical story and can identify everything wrong with their Nativity picture books (e.g., Small Me) will love this.
However, because this book presumes an existing familiarity with the biblical account, some secular readers may trip over unexpected references to Isaiah or to Mary's cousin Elizabeth, who are both mentioned in significant ways but are not explained to the reader. I wish that the author had provided key Bible passages or references in the back of the book to supplement the story for people who are not familiar with the Bible, but hopefully the book will inspire readers to look it up for themselves.
However, because this book presumes an existing familiarity with the biblical account, some secular readers may trip over unexpected references to Isaiah or to Mary's cousin Elizabeth, who are both mentioned in significant ways but are not explained to the reader. I wish that the author had provided key Bible passages or references in the back of the book to supplement the story for people who are not familiar with the Bible, but hopefully the book will inspire readers to look it up for themselves.
libraryjen's review
4.0
This book reads like a poem, it's lyrical and beautiful and the illustrations are whimsical and beautiful. However, I think it misses its target audience. The vocabulary and sentence structure are just too much for the normal demographic for picture books (0 to about 2nd grade). This beautiful book will just go right over their heads. However, it's a wonderful book to add to your Christmas collection if you, as an adult, like to read picture book holiday stories, especially at Christmas time (which I do). Any child familiar with the Nativity story will enjoy the pictures and know (mostly) what's happening because they are already familiar. This is definitely not the book to use to introduce the Nativity story. But it's a gorgeous book.
Disclaimer: I received a free electronic copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Disclaimer: I received a free electronic copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
mxphoebesviewpoint's review
4.0
Mary tells the story of Jesus’ birth.
Mary glowingly tells the story of how Jesus came to be.
Author Katherine Paterson beautifully scripts Mary’s joy at the birth of God’s gift. Lisa Aisato then illustrates it with delicacy and water in The Night of His Birth (Flyaway Books, 9781947888128, 2019). It is a wonderful children’s book for the holidays. It tells the tale of how Mary came to be impregnated and how her family reacted. It shares how Mary felt about the baby.
This is a warm and cozy book to read to a child about the birth of Jesus. A great way to get into the holiday spirit and explain how Jesus’ birth came to be in simple language.
Age range: 6-10 years.
I received this book for free in a Goodreads Giveaway and give my opinion without prejudice and voluntarily.
Mary glowingly tells the story of how Jesus came to be.
Author Katherine Paterson beautifully scripts Mary’s joy at the birth of God’s gift. Lisa Aisato then illustrates it with delicacy and water in The Night of His Birth (Flyaway Books, 9781947888128, 2019). It is a wonderful children’s book for the holidays. It tells the tale of how Mary came to be impregnated and how her family reacted. It shares how Mary felt about the baby.
This is a warm and cozy book to read to a child about the birth of Jesus. A great way to get into the holiday spirit and explain how Jesus’ birth came to be in simple language.
Age range: 6-10 years.
I received this book for free in a Goodreads Giveaway and give my opinion without prejudice and voluntarily.
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