Customer Reviews

Christmas in the Barn

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Unlike the other review, I did not find the similarities with The Big Red Barn to be laudable. It isn't that the style is similar to her other book - that would be fine. No, she practically lifts entire lines from The Big Red Barn. The result is an uneven lyrical quality, like she's trying to tell the story of Christmas but forces in little winks and nods to her other book. Also, it doesn't work that the illustrations clearly show a modern setting (at least a 20th century one), but she keeps referring to an "ancient barn." It renders the story historically inaccurate for a telling to children, which is a disappointment. I don't know how anyone possibly thought that modernizing the setting could do anything but serve as a detraction to the quality of this book, and risk insulting the religious sensibilities of some.

We own many Margaret Wise Brown books and love them all. So, when I saw a book about the nativity story, I couldn't resist. I was very disappointed with this book. The rhyming text doesn't flow in my opinion, making it difficult to read. The story is also inaccurate. It is not a book I plan to read often with my children.

What a wonderful telling of the Christmas story, or any birth for that matter. It's written in a similar style to the Big Red Barn and is just as lovely to read. It's a perfect addition to our Christmas books and would also make a wonderful baby gift.

My children and I have been reading and re-reading my copy of this book for fifteen years now, so when the binding gave out this Christmas, I almost cried. Thank goodness Amazon is able to supply me with a fresh copy.

Margaret Wise Brown and Barbara Cooney together have created a masterful retelling of the age-old story. Sadly, their book is now out of print, but can still be found through the used book market. [This review references the Brown-Cooney edition, not Diane Goode's more recent re-make which I have not read.]

Cooney's tender and gentle illustrations place the story in the early nineteenth century "in a big warm barn, in an ancient field." I am disappointed that the book's other reviewers have missed so many clues as to setting. The biggest clue is the oxen's yoke hanging on the barn wall. The names of the oxen have been printed on the yoke: Star and Bright. Clearly, this is a reference to Laura Ingalls Wilder's Farmer Boy. Calling this an "ancient" field will ring no less true to a child of the technological age for having been set only two hundred, rather than two thousand, years ago.

Placing the story in a fresh setting is a time-honored tradition, one kept by makers of creches the world over. Christians of every nation and culture make this their custom, to portray the Christ Child as though he had been born in their own times and places.

Brown's words are lyrical, melodic, rhythmic, soothing -- her language soothes and lulls here just as it does in Goodnight Moon. She has borrowed extensively from the familiar language of the carols, jumbling her allusions skillfully so as to bring new understanding to words that are often sung by rote and without meaning. Christmas in the Barn is at the top of her craft.

I am particularly drawn to the Mary of the book, with her long braid and red wool scarf, who wraps her baby in a gingham blanket and places him in a basket lined with straw. She is well cast as the fair virgin mother, and is easier to relate to for having a more modern countenance.

The beauty of the setting, the sweetness of the young animals, the peaceful rhythm of the text: All combine to make this book a welcome and restful time-out in a season that can become chaotic and overwhelming to a young child (and his mother). I wish Harper Trophy would re-issue it. I'm buying multiple copies for the children and mothers on my Christmas list next year.

This book is a kind of combination of a traditional Nativity retelling and the popular board book Big Red Barn. Brown interweaves familiar phrases from BIG RED BARN with the biblical story, as well as phrases from traditional Christmas carols, in her characteristically pleasant, soothing rhythm. The illustrations (both the modern version illustrated by Diane Goode and the original by Barbara Cooney) depict a modern couple having a baby in an American-style barn -- an innovation some parents may love and others may object to. The text doesn't flow as well as Brown's other books, but it's a pretty good one-time read.

I have to say that when we first got this book last Christmas, I was very disappointed. From Margaret Wise Brown, I was really expecting so much more... the rhymes seemed awkward, it isn't really the story of the birth of Jesus, so much as the story of a random couple who had "lost their way" and ended up sleeping in a barn that night. And there isn't so much of an actual STORY to it at all, for that matter. Random kind of rhyming lines about the sounds that the animals make and everyone being together, safe, and warm in the 'ancient barn,' with absolutley NO explanation of who these people were or what they were doing there, and bits of various old Christmas carols thrown in. Aaaaand of course, we don't use words like oxen, cattle, lowed, and ass around her to describe animals or their sounds! It just wasn't the cut-and-dry for kids version of the nativity story that I was looking for.

HOWEVER, my then 3-year old adored it from day one. Now she is 4, and both she and my 18 month old still really like this book. We've left it out all year, and it is a frequent bedtime story in our home. As time passed,I got over my initial disappointment, and have grown very fond of it myself. It's nice. It has a very warm and comforting feeling in the dozy way the words run. The illustrations are simple, but very beautifully done, and the girls love pointing out the animals (particularly the bunnies that seem to be watching the story unfold) on every page. The girls have learned all of the new words (always good), and it provides a nice loose frame that allows the parent to explain the true story of Christmas to their children - which is really how it should be, anyway. I DO love the bits of carols thrown in, and as my daughters learn those classics, they will be reminded of this book. I also have a small in-home daycare, and all of THOSE little ones like this book, too. I like that it's a vague enough story that I can read it to children who's parents are not religious, and have it be just a nice story with no Biblical reference whatsoever, though my own children have learned about who the illustrated characters represent, and why they are so important in our lives.

So, all that said and one year later, I HIGHLY recommend this book to everyone, regardless of religion, and think that if you give it a chance, you'll come to love it too!

(I should also mention that to this day we've never read her book "Big Red Barn," so to us this was all new.)

I am so disappointed in this book and wish I hadn't bought it. Here's why: 1. Is this the Christmas story of the Bible? The setting is modern day on a farm in America based on the house/barn & clothing 2. Mary and Joseph supposedly walked into the barn at the end of the day because "And two people had lost their way" - lost their way?? 3. I'd prefer not to use the word "a**" for "donkey" especially as we don't use that word in polite language and I want to read this to my year old son. 4. The name Jesus is never used in the book. She asks "What child is this" and then just calls him "the child".