Thursday, December 2, 2021

79. Christina's Carol


Christina's Carol. Adapted from Christina Rossetti. Illustrated by Tomie dePaola. 2021. [September] 32 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: 
In the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan;
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter,
Long ago

"In the Bleak Midwinter" has become one of my favorite Christmas songs. I don't think I appreciated it when I was younger, it is a carol that has grown on me with more life experience. Christina Rosetti wrote In the Bleak Midwinter" (as a poem) in 1872.  

Apparently Tomie dePaola was working on the illustrations for this one before he died. His illustrations for the whole book were incomplete/unfinished. The book 'borrows' from his previous Christmas books depicting the nativity. (I for one could not spot the difference between old and new, but it looks like some reviewers can?)

The poem takes creative license with the details of Christ's birth certainly. But the theology grows in depth and substance with further verses. 


© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

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