Many
Christmas picture books encompass a great capacity for wonder. Stories of Santa Claus and his magical North Pole factory, tales of elves and
Christmas sprites, and even vintage stories of Christmas ghosts, for example,
use magic as a vehicle for transcendence.
These
stories can be great and good (Your Correspondent was certainly raised on
them), but it is rare that a picture-book uses real-world experiences to
illustrate the miracle of Christmas.
Parents looking for something rare and wonderful should look no further
than the delightful and heart-warming An
Invisible Thread: A Christmas Story, written by Laura Schroff and Alex
Trensiowski, and illustrated by Barry
Root.
Many
readers would be familiar with the story already, as it is based on Schroff’s New York Times bestselling book of the
same name. This picture-book version
softens many of the details for children’s consumption, but alert children will
pick up on the inherent grittiness of the tale.
In
brief: advertising executive Schroff is
hit up for spare change by a street kid, Maurice, who is hungry. Initially Schroff says no, but turns back and
offers to buy the boy lunch.
So
starts an unusual friendship, where Schroff takes young Maurice to dinner every
week. As the fabric of their lives
become more interwoven, Schroff learns of the poverty of the boy’s existence,
of his struggling family, and of his desire to break out of his miserable
circumstances.
Soon,
Schroff learns that Maurice has never had a proper Christmas. So, as the holiday rolls around, Schroff
helps the boy write his first letter to Santa, asks his help putting up her
Christmas tree, and, on the Day of Days itself, takes the boy with her to spend
the day with her family.
In
return, Maurice leaves a very special present under Schroff’s tree, one that
she will treasure forever…
Based
on a true story, the book closes with a picture of both Schroff and Maurice
when they met, and how they look today.
Maurice freely admits that Schroff’s kindness and interest in him steered
him away from a possibly troubled life; Schroff asserts that simple acts of
kindness can change the world by impacting positively on individuals. (It is, in short, a dramatic, real-life
illustration of the lesson found in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.)
The
book ends with a brief homily on the value of Small Acts of Kindness. While many people will spend Christmas buying
gifts, this book reminds young readers that the true meaning of the holiday is
the importance of giving from our hearts.
The
text (one imagines that Tresniowski did the adaptation from Schroff’s source
material), is tight and smartly written.
One can see that there was a lot of judicious editing to make the
hardscrabble realities of Maurice’s life palatable to youngsters, but nothing
is lost by the concision.
The
illustrations by Barry Root are energetic, warm and intimate. Through smiles and body language, Root is
able to illustrate their deep emotional connection. One is touched by the primacy of Christmas
trees in these pictures, as if a teeming holiday spirit was taking root and
growing. Root’s pictures are terrific,
and make the story come to life.
This
book is highly recommended to anyone looking to help youngsters learn the true
meaning of Christmas and, perhaps, turn them into budding altruists, too. If you have children on your Christmas list
from about ages four-to-10, it would be hard to do better.
More
Christmas picture books tomorrow!
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