In the elegant paper-over-board 'Twas the Night Before Christmas: A Visit from St. Nicholas by Moore, illus. by Jessie Willcox Smith, the 19th-century artist's pen-and-ink spot art graces four lines of text on the left of each oblong spread, while silhouetted full-color paintings appear on the right. This is a beauty. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Gr 2-4-An ideal showcase for Hawkes's artistic abilities. The collection contains three traditional pieces ("Jolly Old Saint Nicholas," "The Friendly Beasts," and "A Visit from St. Nicholas"); an excerpt from The Wind in the Willows; and a story by Albert Bigelow Paine, "Christmas at the Hollow Tree Inn." The dense text may be better suited to family sharing than independent reading. Full-color paintings are lush and luminous with lots of clever details. However, with its limited number of selections, this title may not be a first choice for libraries looking for holiday anthologies. Michael Forman's Christmas Treasury (Pavilion, 2000) is a far more comprehensive volume.-T. T. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

The poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” by Clement C. Moore gains a richly illustrated new edition by Lynch. . . for traditionalists seeking a timeless option—particularly to present to first-time readers—Lynch’s dreamy illustrations of the Christmas classic will surely gratify.
—Publishers Weekly

[The] illustrations perfectly match the magical, nostalgic tone of the text.
—Kirkus Reviews

Readers are in for a treat. . . Lynch’s supple watercolor and gouache illustrations are perfect for the tale’s snowy, northern setting. . . . Each page is thoughtfully and artfully arranged. . . . A worthy addition to holiday shelves.
—School Library Journal

2021-08-18
The classic Christmas poem is set to old-fashioned illustrations.

A snow-covered village in tones of blue, with snow still falling, warm yellow lights glowing, and smoke drifting from brick chimneys, centers a snowman smiling up to the sky, where a reindeer’s antler pokes onto the page. Each spread illustrates a set of rhyming verses set against a white background: the mice sleeping, the stockings hung by the chimney, the children and mamma, all White, asleep in bed. When “out on the lawn / there arose such a clatter,” a person in a nightcap runs to the window, then gapes out at the magical reindeer-led sleigh several houses away, lit with small dots of yellow in the blue-toned snowy night. A close-up of the reindeer in midair and an active Santa (also White) driving them gives way to a bird’s-eye view of the reindeer landing on the rooftop of the narrator’s brick residence. For four spreads, St. Nicholas is in the house, stuffing stockings, smoking his pipe, and winking at the narrator. As he flies off with a trail of golden sparkling light, his call of “Happy Christmas to all, / and to all a good night!” is set in large italic type, and the narrator stands outside with a candle, waving. For those who love the poem’s old-fashioned feeling, these illustrations perfectly match the magical, nostalgic tone of the text.

Those who never tire of the iconic text will delight in this classy interpretation. (Picture book. 4-9)