Rebecca and Fenton Vondell, who live in a rundown trailer park, want to give one another the "perfect" gifts for Christmas. But in order to buy these gifts, each is forced to secretly sell his or her most prized possession--never suspecting that the gifts they plan to purchase will be useless without the items they sell. Full color.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From School Library Journal
Grade 3 Up. Once readers get past the opening scene filled with truly annoying children asking their Sunday School teacher repetitive questions about the Christmas story, a surprisingly touching tale emerges. This retelling of O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi" is set in the present-day, rural South. Rebecca, the Sunday School teacher, is a hairdresser and her husband, Fenton, is a car mechanic and part-time carpenter. Times are hard, and neither one has been earning enough money to buy the other a Christmas gift that's exactly right. Rebecca sells her mother's prized quilt in order to buy her husband a tool chest, while he sells his beloved tools to buy her a chest for her quilt. As in the original story, the characters react with love, understanding, and optimism when the discovery is made on Christmas morning. Moser's illustrations, rendered in transparent watercolors on handmade paper, look almost as though they were painted on brown wrapping paper. The artist succeeds in giving these illustrations vitality and depth despite their lack of color, while the brown tone that permeates them underlines the rustic setting. While accessible to young people, this story is one that is more appreciated by adults.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
An illustrated reworking of O. Henry's ``The Gift of the Magi,'' set in present-day Appalachia. The struggling newlyweds are Fenton, an auto mechanic who is acquiring his own set of Snap-on tools, at the rate of one piece at a time, and Rebecca, a hairdresser and Sunday school teacher whose prized possession is a quilt that was a wedding present from her late mother. Fenton sells his tools to buy an antique chest for the quilt, but Rebecca has sold it to buy her husband a toolbox. Moser retains both the sweetness and the irony of O. Henry's story; the only jarring notes occur in some of the characters' names and in the region's speech patterns, which are overdone to the point of caricature. For the masterly illustrations, Moser works in watercolor on brown paper, keeping the pictures nearly monochromatic but for subdued touches of red, green, and blue. The timeless plot, painstakingly particularized in both text and pictures, will resonate with young readers. (Fiction. 8-12) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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