Pennsylvania Dutch Night Before Christmas (The Night Before Christmas Series) [Hardcover]

Chet Williamson (Author), James Rice (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up | Series: The Night Before Christmas Series

The Pennsylvania Dutch dialect and the antics of the crotchety Belsnickel will make this a Christmas tale to enjoy.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Praise for James Rice's Night Before Christmas series illustrations: "Forget Dance, Prancer, Comet, and Vixen. . . . Good Clement, wherever he is, will not be gnashing his teeth." --New York Times Book Review "Rice is especially good with facial expressions, whether they are on a Texas jackrabbit, a longhorn steer, a dusty cowboy, or the green and long-nosed alligator named Gaston." --Library Journal This charming parody of the Christmas classic by Clement C. Moore blends Santa Claus with the traditional Pennsylvania Dutch figure of the Belsnickel, a thin, cantankerous old man who visits children before Christmas and rewards, or punishes, them based on their behavior. This particular old Belsnickel rides in on a plow pulled by cows and steers. The fun begins when Belsnickel's plow and livestock are too much for the farmer's roof and he plunges through the ceiling and into the farmer's bed! After grilling the kiddies to see if they've been bad or "sveet", he gives them their presents and lumbers back through the roof to his plow, promising to send over Stolzfus, the local carpenter. The distinctive Pennsylvania Dutch dialect and the hilarious antics of crotchety old Belsnickel will make this a Christmas tale your family will enjoy reading aloud again and again. Pennsylvania Dutch Night Before Christmas is also available on an entertaining audiocassette read by the author. Chet Williamson is an award-winning novelist and short-story writer who has written for The New Yorker, Esquire, and many other magazines and anthologies. Chet makes his home in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Laurie, and their son, Colin. Widely acclaimed as the South's leading illustrator of juvenile books, James Rice is the illustrator and/or author of over sixty titles with over 1.6 million copies in print. Rice was born on a farm in Coleman County, Texas, in 1934. He graduated with a bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of Texas, a master of fine arts degree from Stephen F. Austin University, and a master of arts degree in education from Howard Payne College. He taught art and music at both the high-school and college levels and was a favorite speaker at schools, nursing homes, and community centers across the country. Mr. Rice moved to Hico, Texas, in 1980, where he died in 2004.

About the Author

James Rice, in his long, distinguished career as an author and illustrator, has produced fifty-plus childrenís books, among them illustrations for an addition to the Night Before Christmas series, Gullah Night Before Christmas. With more than a million and a half copies of his books in print, he ranks among the nationís best-selling creators of childrenís books.

Chet Williamson is an award-winning writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. Over eighty of his short stories have appeared in such publications as The New Yorker , Esquire , Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction , and many other magazines and anthologies. He has been a final nominee for the World Fantasy Award, the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award, and the Horror Writers Stoker Award. Williamson, who is also a trained actor, lives in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. This is his first children's book.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Pelican Publishing (September 21, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565547217
• ISBN-13: 978-1565547216
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.8 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #663,671 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Chet Williamson is the author of over twenty books, the latest of which is The Story of Noichi the Blind. Among his other published novels are Second Chance, Ash Wednesday, Soulstorm, Lowland Rider, McKain's Dilemma, Murder in Cormyr, Mordenheim, Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller, Reign, The Crow: Clash By Night, and the paranormal suspense series, The Searchers, which includes City of Iron, Empire of Dust and Siege of Stone. He has also written two children's books, Pennsylvania Dutch Night before Christmas and Pennsylvania Dutch Alphabet.

His most recent project was writing the story and dialogue for the computer game, Season of Mystery: The Cherry Blossom Murders, which can be downloaded at www.bigfish.com. His first play, a psychological thriller entitled Revenant, was recently produced, and he has just finished a stage adaptation of The Story of Noichi the Blind.

His books have been translated and published in many languages and countries, including France, Germany, Russia, Italy, and Japan, as well as British editions of several of his novels.

Over a hundred of his short stories have appeared in such magazines as The New Yorker, Playboy, Esquire, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and many other magazines and anthologies. Figures in Rain, a collection of his short stories, received the International Horror Guild Award for Outstanding Collection. He has twice been a final nominee for the World Fantasy Award, the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award, and a six-time nominee for the Horror Writers Association's Stoker Award. His work has also been adapted for television, radio, and recorded books. His New Yorker short story, "Gandhi at the Bat," was recently made into a short film and has been shown in festivals worldwide.

Williamson lives in Elizabethtown with his wife Laurie. His son Colin currently works in Seattle as a video game developer for Square Enix.

His website is http://www.chetwilliamson.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun and somewhat accurate, December 7, 2000

By 

Paul Ding (Lancaster County, Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pennsylvania Dutch Night Before Christmas (The Night Before Christmas Series) (Hardcover)

The author of this book read it to kids on the Pennsylvania Kids Network, and they loved it - but then, kids would love it when a stranger would come in and read legal advertising from the newspaper. Can you really trust the judgement of a group that loves McDonald's and Pee Wee Herman?Nope, this is a book for adults to enjoy, year after year. Kids will never appreciate the naming of the holsteins, or the authenticity of the Plain Sect traditions associated with Christmas. They'll just laugh when the roof caves in.So don't give this book to your kids. Give it to your boss, or to your webmaster - someone who enjoys subtle humor in the style of Shel Silverstein. An adult will appreciate it a lot more.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gut Deutsch Fun!!, November 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Pennsylvania Dutch Night Before Christmas (The Night Before Christmas Series) (Hardcover)

The hex signs, the cows on the cover are a clue to the pure fun of reading Williamson's Pennsylvania Dutch Night Before Christmas. The cadence, the w/v sounds are possible to understand from the very beginning. The explanations of the German dialect are not overdone. Even the names of the cows and steers are Pennsylvania Dutch to the core. The book is fun to read aloud; fun to look through: the illustrations are as joyful as the words. Children outside the area of Amish populations may not understand some of the subtle humor, the names used, such as "Stolzfus." But children of all ages will enjoy the overall effect of the book: good fun.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Christmas with a Belsnickle twist, November 27, 2006

By 

Tom Knapp "Rambles.NET editor" (Lancaster, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pennsylvania Dutch Night Before Christmas (The Night Before Christmas Series) (Hardcover)

Clement C. Moore's "A Visit From St. Nicholas" (or, as it's more commonly known, "'Twas the Night Before Christmas") is forever etched in the minds of everyone who loves Christmas. Over the years, this famous poem has been adapted to various cultures around the world, to better suit the customs, languages and holiday nuances of the people who live there.

Chet Williamson tackles the Pennsylvania Dutch (primarily Amish and Mennonite) community with a broad wink and grin in "A Pennsylvania Dutch Night Before Christmas." Adhering closely to the style, rhythm and basic storyline of Moore's original piece, Williamson sets his version around the Belsnickle, an often-stern parallel to Santa Claus who distributes candies and handmade toys to the good children and switches for whippings to the bad. This version, lovingly and warmly illustrated by James Rice, inserts plenty of humor into the story; just imagine, if you will, a wagon pulled by a team of cows resting comfortably on your typical residential roof! And it turns out the children in this story don't earn switches, anyway.

For Christmas with a twist, keep a copy of "A Pennsylvania Dutch Night Before Christmas" under your tree. It's a hoot, even if you're not from Lancaster County, PA!

by Tom Knapp, Rambles.NET editor