Customer Reviews

A Child's Christmas in Wales

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This is as nice an edition of Dylan Thomas' "A Child's Christmas in Wales" as it is possible to imagine. It is beautifully laid out, in a wide children's picture-book format, with colorful and evocative paintings by illustrator Christopher Raschka.

If you've never encountered Dylan Thomas' vision of his childhood Christmas in Wales before, you're in for a real treat. Boys chase each other through the snow; uncles repair to the drawing room lighting pipes; aunts offer Useless Presents such as mufflers long enough to swing from, and my favorite - the Prothero family's house starts to go on fire, which the gaggle of boys attempts to extinguish with snowballs.

It's clear that a poet wrote this; every word counts not just in the mental images it provokes but also in its glorious SOUND - please try reading it out loud; it is positively musical.

But - I confess the current edition seems mismarketed to me. It's not really a children's book, although older children, at least, may enjoy having it read to them. The picture-book format (and the above product info's insistence that the reading level is "4 to 8 years") might make you, the reader, think of it as a good Christmas present for the pre-school set. But the language is dense and unfamiliar to little ones (the uncles smokes 'briars' not pipes), and the text is longer than a little kid will sit still for (my 5-year-old for example).

I read it to my very attentive 10-year-old as well, and even he had trouble grasping all Thomas' delicious and metaphorical language.

So buy it; read it out loud to yourself in front of an evening fireplace, and Merry Christmas to you all.

Dylan Thomas' imagery and prose invoke the secular feelings of Christmas like no other book. His floating word-pictures are both vague and precise, inviting the reader's imagination to fill in the blanks. Thomas creates the sensations of memory--blurred, idiosyncratic, and suffused with impression:

"There were church bells, too"
"Inside them?"
"No, no, no, in the bat-black, snow-white belfries, tugged by bishops and storks. And they rang their tidings over the bandaged town, over the frozen foam of the powder and ice-cream hills, over the crackling sea."

Fortunately, the dreamlike imagery never weighs down the book. Instead, Thomas wishes only to convey the warmth, humor, and imagination of his childhood Christmases in Wales. Although this is great modernist literature, it is completely unpretentious and can be enjoyed by all ages. The book seems longer than it is, perhaps because Thomas' depictions linger warmly after one reads about the Christmas fire, the smoking Uncles and drinking aunts, the presents ("...and a celluloid duck that made, when you pressed it, a most unducklike sound, a mewing moo that an ambitious cat might make who wished to be a cow"), the dinner, the caroling at the large strange house where "the wind through the trees made noises as of old and unpleasant and maybe webfooted men in caves," the music, and the soft bedtime.

These episodes are generally no longer than a page each, but they graft onto our own memories--or would-be memories--of what Christmas could or should be like. In sum, it's a pleasure for the both the intellect and the senses, an unsentimental yet warm treat for both young and older audiences. It's one of the truest--and therefore most satisfying--Christmas books you'll ever read.

The poetry background of Dylan Thomas gives these reminiscences a certain lyrical quality:

Years and years ago, when I was a boy, when there were wolves in Wales, and birds the color of red-flannel petticoats whisked past the harp-shaped hills, when we sang and wallowed all night and day in caves that smelt like Sunday afternoons in damp front farmhouse parlors, and we chased, with the jawbones of deacons, the English and the bears, before the motor car, before the wheel, before the duchess-faced horse, when we rode the daft and happy hills bareback, it snowed and it snowed. But here a small boy says: "It snowed last year, too. I made a snowman and my brother knocked it down and I knocked my brother down and then we had tea."

"But that was not the same snow," I say. "Our snow was not only shaken from white wash buckets down the sky, it came shawling out of the ground and swam and drifted out of the arms and hands and bodies of the trees; snow grew overnight on the roofs of the houses like a pure and grandfather moss, minutely -ivied the walls and settled on the postman, opening the gate, like a dumb, numb thunder-storm of white, torn Christmas cards."

And they are wonderfully evocative of his Welsh youth.

But for me they also evoked another memory, of a trip that Bud Rouse and I made up to Saratoga. We visited friends of his who worked at the track and had a horse of their own (Double Russian was the name, if memory serves). We had fun at the races, hanging on the far side with all the Hispanic groomsmen and walkers and cussing out prima donna jockeys. And after dinner and a few frosties that night, our host took down a collection of Dylan Thomas poems and we took turns reading them aloud. It was precisely the kind of affected scene that you'd expect in a Manhattan novel or like something out of a gutter version of Jane Austen, but I'll be damned if we didn't have fun.

The best, most treasured, books and writers of our lives become entwined in our existence in just such odd and unique ways. Then any time we encounter them again, they trigger a cascade of memories. For no reason that will ever matter to anyone else, Dylan Thomas is such a writer for me. But I think everyone will enjoy this short but terrific memoir.

GRADE: A

Like so many other children's books, Amazon.com takes a perverse pleasure in lumping together all version's of Dylan Thomas's, "A Child's Christmas In Wales". So if a reviewer, like myself, wants to review the book that was illustrated in 2004 by Chris Raschka, I'd better make it as clear as possible right from the start. So here it goes. Ahem. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, it gives me the greatest of pleasure to announce that I will now be reviewing "A Child's Christmas In Wales", penned by the great Dylan Thomas and illustrated with grace, aplomb, and a hint of frenzy by accomplished children's book illustrator Chris Raschka. Thank you.

If you, like myself, have gone most of your natural life in ignorance of this story, I'll try to summarize it here. Problem is, summarizing "A Child's Christmas In Wales" is akin to herding cats. This isn't one of those books with a neat little beginning, middle, and end. There's not what you might call "a plot". If the book is ever summarized anywhere it's simply stated that this is Thomas's reminisces of Christmas when he was a child. In doing so, the poet fills this relatively short work with patches of memory, amazing descriptions, and evocative sentences like, "The wind through the trees made noises as of old and unpleasant and maybe webfooted men wheezing in caves". If you're looking for a straightforward Christmas tale with characters, a plot, and a point, go get yourself a copy of "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" and enjoy it. If, on the other hand, you would like to begin a tradition in your family of reading aloud this magnificent and truly beautiful collection of evocative images, this the only place to go.

There is no tradition in my family of listening or reading this story during the holiday time of year. In fact, prior to reading this book with Raschka's illustrations, I had never even heard so much as a phrase from it. Basically I came to this book as a clean slate. I was just a former college English major with some mild associations with Dylan but certainly no baggage of any kind. Not knowing the history behind the book, I was under the vague and misguided belief that Dylan had written this tale with the full intent that it be a children's book. Not so much. According to the helpful Foreward at the beginning of this tale, I learned that this book was actually a combination of two separate pieces produced during Thomas's lifetime and put together after. So this isn't like when Michael Chabon or Joyce Carol Oates writes a children's book. More like when Woody Guthrie songs are turned into picture books. A posthumous and lucrative printing.

For the child that has never heard this story read before, I found that Raschka was a perfect fit. Certainly I understand that the book has, in the past, been illustrated by the great Trina Schart Hyman. Hyman, however, is a very literal illustrator. She's excellent at realism and intricate characters, but how well does that work when she's paired with Mr. Thomas? This is a book that contains lines like, "All the Christmases roll down toward the two-tongued sea, like a cold and headlong moon bundling down the sky that was our street; and they stop at the rim of the ice-edged, fish-freezing waves, and I plunge my hands in the snow and bring out whatever I can find". Hyman doesn't even bother to deal with sentences like that one. Raschka is another matter entirely. Using a gouache, ink, and torn paper technique, the man who brought the world the manic, "John Coltrane's Giant Steps" has finally met his authorial match. The sentence I just wrote above is accompanied by a snowblown seaside town, so filled with cresting waves and freezing snow that you shiver just looking at it. These are pictures that work on the reader's emotions. I have all the respect in the world for Hyman or even Edward Ardizzone, but as accomplished as they are, they're not the right fit. Raschka is.

I was a little baffled by the blurb on the cover of this version of the tale that read, "This beautifully illustrated edition should bring Dylan Thomas's work to a new generation of children" - President Jimmy Carter. I'm a Carter fan myself, but even I can't see what this perfectly nice former president has to do with poetry, children's literature, or even Christmas itself. It might have been better to put a blurb by the Number 1 poet in America. Problem is, who is that person? And would anyone buy a book if they recommended it? These problems aside, it's wonderful for me to hold this book in my hands and know that at long last a great problem has been corrected. Thomas's book has existed for years without proper packaging. Raschka single-handedly has corrected this problem and the world is a better place for it. So thank you, Mr. Raschka. Thank you.

Why, oh why, do we insist on reciting "Twas the Night," perhaps "A Christmas Carol," every holiday season when this, probably the most intelligent, endearing, and entertaining holiday fable ever written, goes unnoticed? Do yourself a favor, buy this book and fall in love with it as I did! Then buy another copy for someone else!

Just finished with the annual tradition of reading this fine work aloud to the whole household, & although Dylan Thomas's perfect (if sometimes tongue-twisting) prose cannot be improved upon, nonetheless, Trina Schart Hyman's illustrations do enhance the story, & make the Welsh poet's vivid reminiscences even vivider. A marvel of beauty, both lyrical (Thomas) and visual (Hyman); a joy to peruse. Make this edition of "A Child's Christmas in Wales" part of your collection, and part of your Yuletide tradition!

With this short story in verse, acclaimed Welsh Poet Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) exhibits a fierce mastery of imagery that reaches into his own beginnings in seaside Swansea to pull out Christmas reminiscence that, among other things, speaks of snowballs, sleeping uncles, wind-cherried noses, and "cats that slink and sidle over white back-garden walls."

The three copies of this version of "A Child's Christmas ... " I ordered earlier this year, arrived in my mailbox, this week, and I was really pleased to lay eyes them. I was a little disappoionted that the booklet no longer comes with the coordinating envelope that has made it so perfect for "gifting" for so many years, but the texture of the paper that covers the book, and Ellen Raskin's woodcut illustrations still set this publication in a class by itself.

I highly recommend this version of "A Child's Christmas in Wales" as a wonderful read and a choice gift.

It isn't for everyone. Some will find that even listening to the tale is "too much like work." Dylan Thomas does roll on.

There's little punctuation, so, I suggest practicing before reading aloud, but do read it aloud. The youngest of children love it! And, why not ... there are firemen and candy cigarettes, useful presents and useless ones ... lots of merriement for young and old.

Dylan Thomas' 'A Child's Christmas in Wales' in it's second print for generations has become an enchanting, simple poetic tale captured in the eyes of a child. The language is delightfully entrancing and the poetry shines with a heavenly radiance. Thomas' style captures an adult's warm memory of a holiday-season that reflects presents, good things to eat, and when it was just right, white blanket of new snow with all it's wonder and the mischief of snowball battles and any exaggeration that moves that will spark the imagination of a child.

This second edition of Thomas' magical tale is lavishly illustration with old-fashioned, scratchboard-like engravings by Fritz Eichenberg. Dylan Thomas was born in Swansea, Wales in 1914. He began writing poetry at a very young age and published his first book, '18 Poems' at twenty. From 1943 until his death he broadcasted his own radio talk program on BBC. He read poetry selections, participated in table discussions, and read dramas and essays. His voice became familiar with Americans in the 1950s during his lecture tours at American universities. He had achieved an admirable audience for his poetry. Besides this book and his poetry his other most widely read works are 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog,' 'Quite Early One Morning' and his play, 'Under Milk Wood.'

'A Child's Christmas in Wales' is Thomas' most fine work of art-with it's human quality, touching sentiment, easily understood presentation and child-like wisdom that gives Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' a second glance at holiday tradition. After all we can all find a child in Christmas in all of us.

I liked the part where the cats were kind of crawling around and the boys were throwing snowballs at them and where Mr. Prothero was waving his slipper over the fire and he looked like he was conducting it. by Sybil Levine

I liked the story when Jim's aunt came down and asked the fire men if they would like something to read. by Morgan Pitt

I liked part where the two boys were throwing snowballs at the house and when the boys said "there might be trolls in there" and they said he reads too much. by Cydney Smith

I like the part when Mr. Prothero said "a wonderful Christmas" and he fanned his slippers and they called the firemen and they tried to call the police and then "Let's call Ernie Jenkins. He loves fires." I also like when the aunt said, "would you like anything to read?" to the firemen. by Jonathan Gilbreath

My favorite part of the story is when the firemen put the fire out and then Miss Prothero says "Would you like anything to read?" I also like the part where he describes the "crackling and carol-singing sea." by Ashley Fox

My favorite part was when Mr. Prothero was banging on the floor with his slipper and when they called the fire department and the firemen were just done putting out the fire and then the aunt came and said, "Would you like to read?" by Harper Ganick

My favorite part was when the kid was on the street. What you do is you take a cigarette out of a little box and wait until an old lady scolds you for smoking and then you eat the candy cigarette. by Davis Gooch

I really cannot say enough wonderful things about this book and the audio tape of Dylan Thomas reading it. My Christmas seasons have been enriched beyond measure since a loved one gave me this book. It is the most evocative and beautiful Christmas tale I've ever read and reading it aloud on Christmas Eve has become a beloved tradition in our family. It even inspired my husband and me to spend Christmas 2 years ago in the Cotswolds (England, not Wales... I realize), but we yearned for a more traditional "old world" holiday season and found it in the countryside not far from Wales. If you love the spirit of Christmas, this book is truly essential....such beautiful words with amazing soul, you will be enchanted.