I bought A Baby Born in Bethlehem retold by Martha Whitmore Hickman and illustrations by Giuliano Ferri, because of the illustrations. I know the story. However it was retold, and it is retold with great love and affection, I could tell the story. The pictures looked like this might just really be a Jewish family from the middle east. I was to read the story at a children's Christmas Eve service at church and I wanted special pictures for them to see. This version was perfect.
The children's service evolved into the children being enlisted to take part in the pageant so they were listening and being the characters rather than watching the book as I read. Still I used this version. Although I am no longer leading the service, when I pulled the book this year, there were my notes, what carols to sing where in the story, and my instructions to the crew when to send what characters down the aisle.
As much as I miss the telling of the story to the children, my favorite memory of this book is watching our Chinese daughter-in-law read it one day. It was her first Christmas in the States and she had no idea what the fuss was all about. I shared some of the books with her but told her she had to read this one first. And so she did. This is after all the first and best Christmas story.
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