Looking for a new take on the Christmas story? “Who Was There on Christmas Night?” by Laurie Lazzaro Knowlton gives a unique perspective on the classic Christmas narrative. The book’s interactive wheel gives children a hands-on approach to learning about the birth of Jesus. It is beautifully illustrated by Buket Erdogan, who also illustrated the Mouse’s First series and the Calico series for Simon & Schuster.
The book is recommended for ages 3 and up, so I read it to my 3 1/2 year old son. He immediately took to the turning wheel, which is found on several pages. The wheel has little ridges perfect for little fingers to grasp and turn.
To go along with the wheel, the book uses rhyming questions to engage children in discovering some of the lesser-known characters who had a special part in the journey to Bethlehem and Jesus’ birth. Each character is introduced with a short clever rhyme which is a great way for kids to learn and memorize the words in the book. When your child turns the wheel, a different body part revolves showing ideas of who the character could be. For instance, the page with the innkeeper shows six faces, five of which are incorrect choices. When the book shares a little poem about the cow in the stable on the next page, the wheel turns to reveal tails that belong to various animals. My son laughed out loud when the tiger’s tail came up and then enjoyed rotating the wheel through several more tails to find the correct one.
The vivid illustrations lend themselves to this book, giving it bold, richly colored pages that are enjoyable for adults as well as children. The book is true to its preview on the back which says, “Celebrate the birth of Jesus and find out who was in Bethlehem the night he was born.”
While the book has many good attributes, it is also lacking in some areas. For instance, the wheel is found only on two front and back pages of the 12 page book, giving my son the opportunity to rotate it to find the right character only four times. The rhymes are catchy and the pictures beautiful so I’m unsure as to why they didn’t include more turning wheels. Also, while accurately portraying the events of the night in the manger, the book never actually uses the name of Jesus, instead calling him the “precious boy” and “newborn King”. These are true descriptions of the Christ child, but the book seems to assume that all children are already familiar with the name of Jesus. Because of this, I don’t see the book as a great evangelism tool, but it is a creative story none the less. My son loved to turn the wheel and requested it several times in one day. My 15 month old daughter even flipped through it for a few minutes.
If you are in search of a book that gives a fresh twist on the Christmas story, whether as a gift or to add to your own collection, “Who Was There on Christmas Night?“ is a sweet choice for a young child.
“Who Was There on Christmas Night?” was given to The Untrained Housewife for the purposes of review.
