I sometimes have a hard time knowing if a book is truly great.. or if I just remember loving it as a little girl, and so it has become wonderful only to me. The Night Before Christmas (illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa) is one of those books I can recall vividly from my childhood... page by page.
Whenever I hear Clement Moore's poem, it is always these images I see in my head. I love everything about it. The title page with the wooden stick letters and the cutaway view of the house as everyone gets ready for bed.
And the amazing sugarplum dreams of the sleeping children.. (which I especially loved because we had six children in our family.. three boys, three girls)
And I love the little jolly Santa, a bit on the petite side. Oh, I adore this book.. but my son has had a few questions: "Where's Rudolph, mom?" "And are these the mean reindeer that were calling him names?"
