Babushka

This Christmas, we read our usual amount of books. Babushka by Sandra Ann Horn is one of my favorites. We found it last year, and this year the kids wanted to read it quite a few times.

We have read another couple of versions of this story. Traditionally, the character of Babushka refuses to go with the wise men because she can't leave her household to collect dust and cobwebs in her absence, but then she regrets her decision. So, she wanders after the wise men, but never finds the baby Jesus. Supposedly, she has continued to try to find the baby Jesus, leaving toys for all children because they might be him.

In Horn's version, she does end up finding him and Mary and Joseph, even though she has already given all her presents away. She is still obsessed with cleanliness and order, but is able to look past the general squalor of the stable when she meets baby Jesus.

I love the illustrations in this book. There are a couple of pages where Horn draws a sky full of angels, and I like the idea of the night sky illuminated by the angels that crowd to earth to announce his birth and to catch a glimpse of him.

I also heard a great interview with John Rutter, the director of the Cambridge Singers (a choir whose CDs are required Christmas listening in my house). When pressed for his favorite Christmas carol, he replies In Dulci Jubilo. "The legend goes it was sung by the angels on Christmas Eve and written down by a monk. If ever there was a carol that might have been sung by the angels, that would be it."