The text of the classic Christmas carol, The Friendly Beasts, in which the various animals describe their gifts to the Christ Child, is paired with beautiful illustrations from artist Anna Vojtech in this lovely holiday picture-book. The book also includes a CD containing narration and singing performance from Australian musician Rebecca St. James...

I enjoy tracking down picture-book presentations of Christmas carols - an annual reading project of mine in the holiday season - and I am quite fond of this particular carol, so I was excited to pick up The Friendly Beasts: An Old English Christmas Carol. Although I didn't get a chance to listen to the CD, I enjoyed the book quite a bit. I've run into the artwork of Anna Vojtech before, in Joseph Bruchac's The First Strawberries, and I thought she did a good job here, capturing the devoted expressions of the animals, and the wonder of that first Christmas night. This carol is a popular one - no doubt the animal characters endear it to young children - and there have been numerous picture-books devoted to it, over the years. These include Tomie dePaola's The Friendly Beasts: An Old English Christmas Carol, Helen Ward's The Animals' Christmas Carol, Sarah Chamberlain's The Friendly Beasts: A Traditional Christmas Carol, Laura Nelson Baker's The Friendly Beasts, Charles Causley's The Animals' Carol, and Jan Burlingham's The Friendly Beasts: A Medieval French Carol - to name but a few! As is apparent from the list above, it has been described both as an English and a French carol, owing no doubt to the fact that it combines a medieval French melody with more modern English text. Whatever the case may be, it is a lovely song, and this is a lovely book - one that is recommended to those seeking an appealing picture-book presentation of it. ( )