Michael Hague's Family Christmas Treasury

With the shelves overflowing with Christmas volumes of all kinds, the book buyer needs guidance to an anthology that is broad, basic, and family worthy. This is it. Michael Hague is both the editor and illustrator of these selections, which are divided into three sections: The Story of Christmas (mainly Gospel tellings of the nativity), The Spirit of Christmas, and The Celebration of Christmas. Each section is interspersed with appropriate Christmas songs and poems. The perennial classics are here, of course: Clement Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas", and a scene of the Cratchit household from Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol". Then there are modern memoirs on their way to becoming classics in their own right: excerpts from "A Child's Christmas in Wales" by Dylan Thomas and "A Christmas Memory" by Truman Capote, both miniature gems of description. And who knew that prairie realist Willa Cather wrote a tale set at the North Pole, with talking reindeer, polar bear, and werewolf dog? It's here. So is a charming scene of Yuletide domestic tranquility from Kenneth Grahame's "The Wind in the Willows". But, to the editor's credit, this treasury also includes elements of the tragic (Andersen's "The Little Match Girl") and the bittersweet (O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi") for balance. Hague's mixed media color drawings, mainly pastels and watercolors, adapt themselves to each application, sometimes Medieval, sometimes pre-Raphaelite, sometimes Victorian, and by default the quality expected of a good children's storybook. "Michael Hague's Family Christmas Treasury" will make an excellent holiday gift, but you'll have to buy at least two copies - after you see it, you'll want to keep one for your own family.