A New Look for an Old Classic

At yesterday's Story Time I read The Night Before Christmas to all the classes, from the "babies" (three-year-olds) up to the "big kids" (Kindergartners) and they all listened raptly. One reason, I think, was because my reading was quite spirited, if I may say so myself. It was such fun for me to read this old favorite. I really hammed it up and I've found my kids really respond to that. But another equally important reason was the wonderful illustrations by Richard Jesse Watson. Unlike the traditional images of Santa and his sleigh and reindeers shown in earlier editions, these images published in 2006 showed a more modern Santa driving a rocket type sleigh with giant snowy white reindeer and multicultural elves. Great fun.

A cute thing that happened was that one of the little four-year-olds came up and gave me a big hug and told me I was "the best library teacher ever." Wasn't that sweet? Later my aide told me that the little girl had told her the same thing. I guess she was just sharing the love that day and I'm glad she chose to share it with me.