The Night Before Christmas

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY SEP 21, 2020

Veering from the convivial, scene-centered graphic interpretation often associated with this classic, W rbs offers a sparer take, narrowing each scene to softly focused images that are more suggestive than representational. The poem's opening lines are accompanied by an image of a lone candle burning in a brass candleholder, and the sleigh's rooftop landing shows two shadowy reindeer heads emerging from behind a foregrounded stone chimney. Santa's visage is something of a mystery at first, his arrival down the chimney represented solely by sooty boot prints, and the top of his cap, surrounded by smoke, rendered alongside the description of his pipe. Building a sense of mystery until near the end, W rbs finally includes one fetching, full-frame portrait of a warmly smiling Santa. A solid choice for those in search of a sophisticated, minimalist artistic vision of Moore's verse. Ages 6 up. (Oct.)