I love Christmas. I always have. I loved Christmas long before I ever loved the reason for it. Now that He is Lord and Savior of my life, I love Christmas in a whole new way.
So, when I came home from work last Friday night and found a brand new children’s Christmas book in my mailbox, I was overjoyed. Now, I have read my share of Christmas books (including kids’ Christmas books). Some are really good, and some are really bad and many fall somewhere in the middle. I am glad to report that Little Star by Anthony DeStefano falls towards the good side of that spectrum.
Update: At the bottom of this post we’ve added a video where Pat Boone reads this children’s book about Christmas.
This 34 page little book tells the Christmas story from a perspective I have never seen before – from that of the Christmas Star. The book begins with a little boy staring out of a window at night and asking his Dad where the Christmas Star is. The Dad proceeds to tell the boy of the Little Star of Christmas. When all the other stars saw that the awaited Kind was born poor and in a stable, they decided they must have been misled. The Little Star though, previously ignored by all the other starts, realized that Jesus was the promised Kind and shined brighter than he ever had before to “keep Jesus warm” through the night. In fact, he shined so bright that he burned out. When the little boy in the story hears that, he asks his Dad if Little Star died, and the Dad explained that he is remembered every year by people who put a star on the top of their tree.
The story itself is cute and the book is beautifully illustrated by Mark Elliot. It also includes a fairly accurate telling of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem from the perspective of stars and even hits on the prophecy of the coming King. One of my concerns with a book like this is that it is easy for authors to water down or misstate the Biblical story in an effort to tell a cute Christmas story. Fortunately, Mr. DeStefano does a great job of not sacrificing the Biblical story while incorporating some modern traditions.
I found the book to be captivating enough to keep the interest of younger kids when reading to them and also challenging enough for early readers to tackle on their own. I appreciated the Biblical treatment of the nativity within the creative telling of the story. I would definitely recommend this book for parents of young kids and elementary age kids. It could easily become part of your family’s Christmas season traditions.
You can purchase this book from Amazon.com. You can read more book suggestions from Wayne on his blog.