12 Days of Christmas

As she did in The Night Before Christmas, Isadora uses her trademark collages to reinterpret a holiday standby, setting it in a jubilant African village. Several of the book's flourishes, Isadora notes in an afterword, are inspired by her travels, from five gold rings (worn around a South African woman's neck) to "lords a-leaping" and "ladies dancing" who hail from Mali and Swaziland. Small, accumulative icons that reference the gifts from earlier pages keep the text light and the focus on Isadora's always-vibrant artwork. Ages 3–5. (Oct.)