A Christmas Carol (with Original Manuscript‪)‬

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 3. NOV. 1988

A well-loved holiday story, Dickens's slim tale has been opened up on the oversize pages of this new version, similar in format to Zwerger's treatment of The Gift of the Magi. Expanses of white space around and between lines of text give the volume a clean-looking design, which sets off the artist's charm-filled, airy watercolors. And that design is of key importance to the unabridged text, for the book appears accessible to readers just out of the picture book age. This is a fine collector's edition as well; Zwerger has chosen not to represent the three spirits of Christmas, but merely hints at their presence in her pictures. That grounds the story of Scrooge's night firmly in the realm of the almost-real and the possible, and renders his transformation a fully believable phenomenon. Ages 10-up.