Mary's First Christmas [Hardcover]

Walter Wangerin Jr. (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: P and up

On the night you were born the whole sky exploded with love, and the angels shouted, and more than a thousand hearts were in love with my baby Jesus on his birthday! Gather near and listen to the wondrous bedtime story, told long ago by a special mother to her very special son. Listen as Mary tells five-year-old Jesus of the first Christmas -- of his own birth and the remarkable events that surrounded it. Award-winning author Walter Wangerin tells this moving story in four parts, to be read in one sitting or over the course of four nights. And artist Timothy Ladwig brings to glowing life the people and places of Jesus' young life. Listen. Look. And you too will experience the wonder and glory of Mary's First Christmas.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Award-winning author Walter Wangerin puts a fresh spin on the Nativity story in the richly illustrated Mary's First Christmas. Listen in as Mary tells a 5-year-old Jesus the story of the events leading up to and following the very first Christmas. Intended to be read as a bedtime story over the course of four nights, Mary's First Christmas is a book to be cherished again and again, ideally read the four nights preceding Christmas. Care to start a tradition? (Ages 4 to 8)

Review

On the night you were born the whole sky exploded with love, and the angels shouted, and more than a thousand thousand hearts were in love with my baby Jesus on his birthday!

Gather near and listen to a wondrous bedtime story, told long ago by a special mother to her very special son. Listen as Mary tells five-year-old Jesus the story of the first Christmas—of his own birth and the remarkable events that surround it.

Award-winning author Walter Wangerin tells this moving Christmas story in four parts, to be read in one sitting or over the course of four nights. And artist Timothy Ladwig brings to glowing life the people and places of Jesus’ young life.

Listen. Look. And you, too, will experience the wonder and glory of Mary’s First Christmas -- Publisher

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: Zonderkidz (October 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0310222168
• ISBN-13: 978-0310222163
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 9.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #696,122 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Walter Wangerin Jr. is widely recognized as one of the most gifted writers writing today on the issues of faith and spirituality. Starting with the renowned Book of the Dun Cow, Wangerin's writing career has encompassed most every genre: fiction, essay, short story, children's story, meditation, and biblical exposition. His writing voice is immediately recognizable, and his fans number in the millions. The author of over forty books, Wangerin has won the National Book Award, New York Times Best Children's Book of the Year Award, and several Gold Medallions, including best-fiction awards for both The Book of God and Paul: A Novel. He lives in Valparaiso, Indiana, where he is Senior Research Professor at Valparaiso University.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An unusual but moving way to tell the Christmas story., December 17, 2001

By 

slomamma (San Luis Obispo, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mary's First Christmas (Hardcover)

I've been collecting children's Christmas books for years, but this is one of the most beautiful and original ones I have ever seen. Religious Christmas books don't have a lot of variety in the story, of course. They tell about the birth of Jesus and no matter how beautiful the story is, everyone tells it pretty much the same way. The only thing that usually distinguishes one nativity book from another is the quality of the illustrations.

The illustrations in this book are nice, although nothing spectacular. But Walter Wangerin has found a unique way of telling the story. He has Mary tell the child Jesus (he looks about six or seven) about how he was born. It's a wonderful approach because every child loves to hear about the day he or she was born, and this gives them a strong identification with Jesus, and creates a touching sense of the warm relationship between Mary and her son that is usually missing from nativity stories. Her emphasis in telling the story is on all the love he was given at birth Ñ from God, from Mary and Joseph, from the angels, and from shepherds and kings.

The other unique quality of this book is that throughout the story, in subtle ways (but directly enough so that my six-year-old was aware of it) the author reminds you that Jesus will die. Mary tells the birth story to Jesus to comfort him when he is treated cruelly by other children (and she seems well aware that this will not be the last time he is treated horribly), and in the final illustration, Joseph is teaching Jesus some carpentry skills and we see Jesus joining two pieces of wood together in the shape of a cross. It is a sad undertone, one you don't usually find in Christmas books (and one many parents may prefer to avoid at Christmas time). But the context is this: at his birth, God and the world gave Jesus love, and through his death he returned that love. At Christmas, we usually focus on the joy not the sorrow, but I found this book very moving, and so did my daughter. We have dozens of Christmas books in the house, but over the past few weeks she's been asking for this one almost every day.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The story of Christmas will never be the same !, December 27, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (South Plainfield, New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mary's First Christmas (Hardcover)

I have shared this story with so many parents of the children I teach. They have come back with their own stories of shared and treasured moments with their children while they have read it together. Walter Wangerin has a wonderful talent of weaving facts into memorable people with whom we share the joys and sorrows of being human. MAry's tale of the moment Jesus was born brought back the same feelings I had the moment my own son was born. The illustrations are beautiful!

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Christmas Tradition, December 6, 1999

By 

Francis J Bermudez (West Palm Beach, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mary's First Christmas (Hardcover)

I have read this story to my three children and we all love it! It brings you back to the time Jesus was born and how Mary and Joseph felt about becoming parents to the Son of God. It is unlike any other Christmas book we have read. The illustrations are also remarkable. We think it is a "must have book" for everyone's library.