WHO WAS BORN THIS SPECIAL DAY?
by Eve Bunting & illustrated by Leonid Gore
In time for the Christmas season, a brief picture-book poem from Bunting, for very young Christian listeners who will enjoy guessing: “Who was born on this special day?” The narrator questions the lamb, then the goat, calf, donkey, dove, cedar tree, and stone—and each provides an answer according to its nature. For example, lamb says: “I was born back in early May / when the breezes of spring chased winter away.” “It was not the lamb.” And the cedar tree, when asked: “Is it your birthday, cedar tree?” Responds: “No, not mine. / When I was a seedling floating in space, a wandering wind dropped me here in this place.” “It was not the tree.” The rhyming couplets appear in white italics, superimposed on soft and fuzzy, blue-and-white acrylic paintings that show cuddly, curly-coated, big-eyed animals, twinkling stars, and fuzzy angels gliding through the night, culminating with the child Jesus in the manger. Pictures are best viewed from a distance. Sweet, but not essential. (Picture book/poetry. 3-6)