The Twelve Days of Christmas

September 4, 2017
In this charming and traditional staging of the classic carol, a girl with a long braid of brown hair and a variety of colorful winter dresses, coats, and capelets celebrates Christmas in her country village. Set against white backdrops and framed by dainty borders of flowers, ribbons, and music notes, Randall’s ornamental illustrations call to mind Eastern European folk art while conjuring an ever-growing and multiracial cast of milkmaids, dancing ladies, feather-capped pipers, and other festive arrivals, including the requisite geese, doves, hens, and other birds. The girl’s “true love,” a boy wearing a neckerchief and cap, finally makes an appearance after the 12th day of Christmas, once the busy assortment of drummers, leaping lords, and others has departed, closing this holiday celebration on a quiet note of quiet, with the promise of spring suggested in flowers peeking up through the snow. Ages 3–7.

September 1, 2017
This handsome rendition of the classic holiday song features a striking black cover with a folk-art-style floral border and the title in gold letters. The visual story begins with a little girl dressed in an old-fashioned coat, receiving her first gift of a partridge in a potted pear tree. The smiling girl has light skin, pink cheeks, and a long, dark braid. On subsequent days, she receives the next gift on the left-hand page with the accumulated earlier gifts attractively arrayed on the right-hand page. The girl wears a different costume on each day, always with red bows on her braid. The double-page spreads effectively use white backgrounds and delicate floral borders augmented with tiny details appropriate to that day's gifts. In the later gift days with human characters, each person within a group wears a different style of costume, and half the characters within each group are people of color. The final spread shows the little girl back home with her pear tree and partridge, with a light-skinned boy coming up the path, tipping his hat to his "true love." Top-notch production values abound, including the intriguing cover, floral endpapers, thick paper, and an appealing, accessible overall design. A tip of the hat to this delightful rendition of an old song, updated with memorable illustrations and a modern cast of characters. (Picture book. 3-7)

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October 1, 2017

PreS-Gr 2-Those looking for a new, visual representation of the popular song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" have come to the right place. The lyrics are simple but the illustrations are lovingly painted and absolutely charming. Each spread features delicate borders of holly, drums, flowers, bows, and other decorative flourishes, and the diverse cast of characters and animals are drawn with sweet, smiley expressions. Artistically inclined children will appreciate details such as the designs on the ladies' dresses, the lords' outfits, and the pipers' uniforms, as well as the escapades of a certain goose with a maid's milk bucket. At the end of the story, the boy who is the true love of the little brown-haired girl emerges and they smile at each other, bringing many days of bounteous gift-giving to an end. VERDICT Not a must-buy since so many editions of the text exist, but this is an appealing stocking stuffer and an adequate addition to most libraries.-Rita Law, Los Angeles Public Library

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2017
Preschool-G This rollicking rendition of the traditional English Christmas carol uses a folk artstyle and clever page placement to breathe new life into the centuries-old song. Here a girl with long braided hair and ruddy cheeks receives the song's well-known gifts over the course of 12 days. Each page is jauntily bordered in flowers, framing simple, two-dimensional illustrations that pop cheerfully against wintry white backgrounds. A handsome pear tree dotted with oblong leaves and a bemused partridge stay on the right-hand side of each double-page spread throughout the book, as the girl receives gift after gift on the facing pages. Each new present joins the growing collection beneath the pear tree, and by the time readers get to twelve drummers drumming, the right-hand page resembles a whirling folk dance. The jolly, accumulative illustrations will keep readers turning the pages of this bright and airy holiday classic, which concludes with a lovely meeting between the girl and a young man, who can only be her true love.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2018
The carol's traditional lyrics are illustrated with colorful folk art on sturdy cardstock pages. While the art is otherwise lovely, the little girl narrator is pictured as stiff and doll-like. As the gifts accumulate, the pages get more crowded with a pleasingly diverse cast of lords a-leaping, ladies dancing, etc., and the twelfth-day spread is quite cheery. A pretty but optional addition to holiday collections.

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)