Our Very Own Christmas

In a refreshingly modest Christmas story first published in Switzerland, two children take an imaginative journey across a snowy landscape to re-enact the story of baby Jesus. Traveling with a sheep and sled piled up with wood, the impish boy and girl seek shelter behind makeshift doors in the snow: “ ‘Knock on the next door!’ says Mary.” Their sled, rested atop the wood, finally serves as the stable where Jesus (a bunny) is born, and a star fills the sky with rosy light. The transitions between the present and conditional tenses can be awkward (“And little Joseph nods. ‘Let’s go, Kelly,’ he says. ‘But I would be Mary!’ Kelly says firmly”), but Tolman’s diminutive figures communicate the spirit of the holiday with ease. Ages 4–8. (Oct.)