JESUS' CHRISTMAS PARTY

``There was nothing the innkeeper liked more than a good night's sleep,'' begins this amusing account of the Blessed Event from his point of view. Having given Mary and Joseph two blankets and sent them ``round the back,'' he becomes progressively more riled by the interruptions—a request for a third, smaller blanket, an unaccountable bright light, shepherds, kings. The heavenly hallelujahs are the last straw: stomping out to the stable, the poor man is roundly shushed (``You'll wake the baby!'') and promptly succumbs (``Isn't he lovely!''). The simple text is as approachable as Allan's deft, affectionately humorous cartoon-style illustrations, but this is not a trivialization. It's a gentle nudge to the reader's imagination: What would it really have been like to be there? Charming. (Picture book. 3+)