Caldecott Monday: Nine Days to Christmas

[osprey_archer]

Nine Days to Christmas: A Story of Mexico, winner of the 1960 Caldecott Medal, is a sort of retelling of The Velveteen Rabbit: instead of bringing a stuffed toy to life with her love, our heroine Ceci turns a star-shaped pinata into a real star by choosing it for her first posada (traditional Mexican Christmas party).

There were posadas in the Josefina American Girl series too; they sounded like great fun, although admittedly I was a sucker for any and all Christmas traditions in American Girl. I always wanted to wear a wreath of candles on my head for Santa Lucia day, too.

ETA: I don't really have many thoughts specifically about this book, but I have been thinking about Christmas lately, because it's been such a bad year - not just in terms of the election, but in general, for so many people that I know - and I'd really like to make Christmas something special this year, in defiance of that.

I don't have a fixed plan for this yet, but a Santa Lucia party - with saffron buns and candles, if not candle wreaths - might be a place to start.

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

I always wanted to wear a wreath of candles on my head for Santa Lucia day, too.


And here was me being terrified just because of having to carry a Christingle every year!

Googling the images, that one looks very interesting - what's been chosen as colour against the pencil lines. V nice.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I suspect that if I had ever come within spitting distance of actually wearing the candle, I would have been terrified too, but as it was only ever a distant dream I found the whole idea quite charming.

The illustration style works especially well for the nighttime scenes: the dark background really makes the bright colors pop.