A Treasury of Christmas Stories and Songs

Edited by Catharine Ard and Michael Diggle, illus. by various artists. Parragon, $12.99 (192p) ISBN 978-1-4723-5044-2

Seven illustrators including Charlotte Cooke, Valeria Docampo, and Caroline Pedler bring their talents to this unfussy collection of Christmas carols and traditional holiday stories. Sophie Burrows provides friendly watercolor accompaniments for a sturdy retelling of the Nativity story (one that will help answer at least one perennial holiday question, when one of the wise men describes the ever-mysterious myrrh as a “healing oil,” one of its historical uses); elsewhere, retellings of “The Snow Queen” and “The Nutcracker” join a dozen Christmas songs, Gaby Goldsack’s “A Letter to Santa,” and Moore’s “Night Before Christmas.” All ages. (Aug.)

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