Gorgeous illustrations ( )

This is an exquisite book. Anyone who appreciates art should obtain a copy. I spent over an hour looking at each detailed page. It is breathtaking!!!! ( )

Russian-born and educated artist Gennady Spirin, whose previous picture-book forays into the world of Christmas include The Twelve Days of Christmas, The Night Before Christmas, and The Christmas Story (not to mention the holiday collection, Joy to the World: A Family Christmas Treasury), here turns his attention to that beloved Christmas carol, We Three Kings of Orient Are. Using the lyrics of the song as his text, Spirin depicts the Three Kings (or Magi), their marvelous gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, and the glorious host of angels that oversee their journey.

Written by the Reverend John Henry Hopkins, Jr., an American Episcopal minster, in the nineteenth-century - the date given on the dust-jacket blurb here in 1857, although I understand that it was first published in 1863, in Hopkins' Carols, Hymns and Song - We Three Kings has always been one of my favorite Christmas carols, and I enjoyed reading it this morning on the train, while also listening to a recording of it by The Deller Consort. That said, although I love the carol, and appreciated the artwork, I wasn't as thrilled with this one as I expected to be. Spirin's paintings here are beautiful, but their details are rather blurred, and the repetition of the scene with the angels - the same exact painting is used, each time the refrain of the song appears - began to be rather tiring after a while, despite its loveliness.

Despite these issues, overall I enjoyed this picture-book, and I recommend it to fans of the carol (it's the only picture-book presentation of We Three Kings with which I am familiar) and to fans of Gennady Spirin. ( )

Gennady Spirin has illustrated the traditional carol with detailed jewels of paintings which look as though they belong in an Italian Renaissance church, although the figures have a more Eastern feel to them. Perhaps he is referencing the famous Journey of the Magi in the Gozzoli Chapel in the Medici Palace in Florence. I liked the fact that every time the chorus of the song returned, the same painting of angels singing it was repeated, so that the form of the book echoed the form of the song. This is a beautiful book, and one which I will enjoy for many Christmases. ( )

Lavishly illustrated version of the classic Christmas song. ( )