Angela and the Baby Jesus: (Children's Edition) [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]

Frank McCourt (Author), Raul Colon (Illustrator)

Book Description

An evocative Christmas story, from the Pulitzer prize-winning author of the phenomenally best-selling memoir, Angela's Ashes. This wonderful Christmas story is based on an incident from the childhood of Frank McCourt's mother, Angela. When six-year-old Angela sees the Baby Jesus in the Christmas crib at the church near her house, she feels very sorry for him. He looks happy enough but she wonders why he has no blanket to keep him warm. So Angela decides to take the Baby home with her, when no one is looking, and make him more comfortable. But hiding the Baby Jesus isn't easy. How long can Angela keep her big secret?

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"When my mother, Angela, was six years old, she felt sorry for the Baby Jesus in the Christmas crib...."

Frank McCourt's first Christmas book is by turns tender and heartwarming, and wholly unforgettable. Angela is six years old and worries for the Baby Jesus on the altar of St. Joseph's Church near School House Lane in Limerick, Ireland, where she lives. December nights are damp and cold, and the church is dark. The Baby Jesus' mother doesn't even have a blanket to cover him. The Baby is sure to need Angela's help, even if she is not allowed to step near the altar, especially by herself.

Filled with the character and incident that have made Pulitzer Prize recipient Frank McCourt internationally renowned and beloved, Angela and the Baby Jesus is a timeless story of family--and all of its joy, tradition, love, and incongruity--and a book for the generations to cherish.

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Amazon.com Exclusive
Angela and the Baby Jesus, the first Christmas book from beloved author Frank McCourt, is an unprecedented event, with a children's edition published by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing and an adult edition published by Scribner. Set in Ireland, the story is about the childhood of Angela, of Angela's Ashes. Each edition has the same story written by McCourt but is illustrated by a different artist. Raul Colon illustrated the children's edition and Loren Long illustrated the adult edition. Amazon asked both artists to write about their experiences illustrating the same scene from McCourt's story to get an inside look at how they interpreted McCourt's words.

Raul Colon on the Fireside Scene from Angela and the Baby Jesus:
This image for Frank McCourt's Angela and the Baby Jesus picture book came to me just by thinking of a warm fireplace on a cold night.

In this particular scene the family sits around the fire to chat after tea. Angela's little brother is giving up the secret that the "Baby Jesus" is in the bed upstairs. Angela shows a bit of worry in her face, since she quietly snuck the "baby" into the house. Surely she'll be in trouble now.

Throughout the story I hardly show any of the adult faces, focusing mainly on the children's world. Hence, Mother's back is turned toward us. I also cut off the little brother's face by having Mother's turn-of-the-century hairdo get in the way (A little thing I learned from the great artist Degas.) It gives the scene intimacy, as if the viewer is there taking a snapshot with his camera. All in all a fun and rewarding book to illustrate. It was an honor to turn McCourt's words into actual pictures. --Raul Colon









Loren Long on the Fireside Scene from Angela and the Baby Jesus:
Usually little Angela would want to be right in the middle of the action as the family sits by the fire and talks. But not this time--she has a secret upstairs.

At this point in the story, I'm giving the reader a seat behind the family in the shadows away from the fire. At the same time we, the readers, know about Angela's secret in the bedroom upstairs and we see her hanging back from the others, sneaking peeks up the staircase. We can see that she has something more important on her mind than her family's chattering.

In my visual interpretation of Angela and the Baby Jesus, I wanted to tap into Frank McCourt's sophisticated blend of gritty realism and subtle humor. For this reason, I specifically chose a limited color palette. I worked with acrylics on canvas and tried to keep the paintings a bit edgy and raw.

Choosing images came naturally when working on this story. I was taken with the balance of reverence, innocence, and humor in Frank’s text and I simply tried to come up with creative ways to portray these elements in a subtle but hopefully profound way. --Loren Long

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From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Not one but two editions suffice to publish this sure crowd-pleaser by the celebrated McCourt, inspired by a childhood experience of the mother made famous in Angela's Ashes. The plot can be reduced to anecdote: six-year-old Angela worries that the Baby Jesus feels cold in the crèche at the church, so she devises a way to smuggle him home and warm him. In McCourt's hands, however, the story opens a child's view onto a vast world that takes scant notice of her, where people passing by were not in the mood to be looking at a little girl carrying something white in the dark, and where she is considered too young to have anything of interest to say, even at home. Angela negotiates with unmistakably childlike logic: frustrated at her difficulty in getting the Baby Jesus over the garden wall (an improvised part of her scheme), she scolds him with empty threats: 'Baby Jesus, I have a good mind to leave you there in Mrs. Blake's backyard.' But she couldn't. If God found out, he'd never let her have a sweet or a bun for a whole week. Rarely, McCourt risks inviting a laugh at Angela's expense (Angela continues, You're not to be flying around like an angel), but otherwise he brings consummate skill to his layering of different types of authenticity (in Angela's thinking, in the reactions to the inevitable discovery of the Baby Jesus), and evokes a potent mix of emotions. Given a traditional storybook format and charged with illustrating a children's edition, Colón (My Mama Had a Dancing Heart) employs his signature, multi-step watercolor and lithograph pencil technique, patterning the colors and surfaces to suffuse the story with warmth and light. The effect stops just short of nostalgic, to hint at a timeless if imperfect past. Candles in the church, streetlamps, a barely seen fire in the hearth all bathe Angela in a steady glow that emphasizes the spiritual dimension of the story. No incidental players stroll into these scenes, and the focus remains on Angela; not even Angela's mother can be seen unobstructed. Long, ranging far from his illustrations for The Little Engine That Could and Toy Boat, interprets the story with an almost foreboding air, as if giving a form to Angela's trepidation and awareness of her own insignificance. The adult edition, produced in a small, square gift format, suggests the atmosphere of Angela's Ashes, beginning with the cover illustration of chimneys spewing smoke into an evening sky, and continuing with the stony palette of grays and blues rendered in grainy acrylics. Already dark pictures make dramatic use of shadow—sometimes to conceal, sometimes to announce a character's presence. Readers never see Angela's face, and most of the characters, too, are shown with their backs to viewers, sometimes from an even more distancing mid-air perspective. McCourt's humor seems harder to locate in this version; on the other hand, the tender ending comes as more of a surprise. All ages. (Nov.)
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing (November 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416937897
• ASIN: B001SARBZS
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #423,470 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #99 in Books > Children's Books > Religions > Christianity > Jesus

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Engaging Little Christmas Saga From Frank McCourt, November 12, 2007

By 

John Kwok (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Angela and the Baby Jesus: (Children's Edition) (Hardcover)

Once more Frank McCourt has delved into his youth - or rather, his mother's - to write a terse, engaging Christmas saga which will remind readers of his Pulitzer Prize-winning "Angela's Ashes". Young Angela Sheehan is six years old, and wonders about the baby Jesus in his crib. This is yet another heart-felt, memorable tale from Frank McCourt that is replete with his crisp, lyrical prose. While I won't predict whether this will be a perennial favorite at Christmas, it should be a most delightful saga enjoyed by everyone this Christmas. The children's edition of "Angela and the Baby Jesus" features excellent art from illustrator Raul Colon; the adult edition features superbly executed illustrations from illustrator Loren Long. Without question, this wee book promises to be a favorite of McCourties (diehard fans of Frank McCourt) and of others interested in the McCourt family saga.

(EDITORIAL NOTE 7/23/09: Elsewhere online I posted this tribute to my favorite high school teacher, and I think it is worth noting here:

I've been fortunate to have had many fine teachers in high school, college and graduate school, but there was no one like Frank McCourt. Without a doubt, he was the most inspirational, most compelling, and the funniest, teacher I ever had. I am still grateful to him for instilling in me a life-long love of literature and a keen interest in writing prose. Am still amazed that he encouraged me to enter a citywide essay contest on New York City's waterfront, and would, more than a year later, in my senior yearbook acknowledge my second prize award by thanking me for winning him money (His was also, not surprisingly, the most eloquent set of comments I had inscribed in my yearbook from teachers.). He is gone now, but I am sure that for me, and for many of my fellow alumni of his Stuyvesant High School classes, he will live in our hearts and minds for the rest of our lives.)

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mc Court takes us into his family's heart and soul again., November 22, 2007

By 

J. Guild (Toronto,Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Angela and the Baby Jesus: (Children's Edition) (Hardcover)

Frank Mc Court never ceases to amaze and overwhelm us with his ability to take ordinary things and make them memorable and heart wrenching. Who would ever think that he would give us a Christmas story that would be so tender and captivating to young and old alike?
There are two editions of this tome.One a childrens,and the other an adult. My review is on the latter. They were illustrated by two different artists.In the descriptions of the book ,here at Amazon,there are notes with examples of the art in the two editions.Be sure you read them as they will further your appreciation of the art accompanying MCCourt's touching storytelling.
In Angela's Ashes we came to know her and and Frank's father and brother. But in this magic little story,we are introduced to Angela when she was a little girl of 7, her mother,her sister Aggie and brothers Pat and Tom.
Most stories of this type take place in the days leading up to Christmas or on Christmas Eve;but in this case it is later as the Baby Jesus has already arrived in the Manger in the Limmerick church that the family attended.
This is the type of story that will probably bear reading over and over again each Christmas.
I have not seen the Children's edition,but I will be anxious to.I am sure it will be worth seeing how Raul Colon portrays the scenes as well as Loren Long does.
The artwork in this little book complements the writing of McCourt;and to do such,is really saying something.
Although this is a small book of only 27 pages,but once you read it,I doubt if you will ever look upon the Baby Jesus in the Manger again,without this story coming to mind.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful for children, December 8, 2007

By 

Parke C. Bogle (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Angela and the Baby Jesus: (Children's Edition) (Hardcover)

I purchsed this book for three of my great grandchildren. Their mother says they read it over and over again. The two older children read it to the youngest who is too young to read yet. But he claps his little hands in enjoyment. The life story of Frank McCourt is one of rags to riches. I have several of his books and find inspiration in each of them.
Parke C. Bogle