The Horn Book Guide

PRESCHOOL

Brown, Margaret Wise

Christmas in the Barn

40 pp. | HarperCollins/Harper | September, 2016 | Trade ISBN 978-0-06-237986-3 $17.99
New ed. (1952, Crowell)

(4) PS Illustrated by Anna Dewdney. First published in 1952, Brown's simple rhyming couplets tell the Nativity story as a baby is welcomed by a barn full of animals. Dewdney's new illustrations for this edition, created using oil paint, pastel, pencil, and marker, are more blurry than gauzy, with a muddy contrast between light and dark colors on many of the double-page spreads.

Reviewer: Gail Hedges | Horn Book Magazine Issue: December, 1952