December
Grade 1-4.  A story singular in its originality; its artwork; and its contemporary, multilayered theme that is ultimately filled with joy and peace despite its stark setting. On Christmas Eve, a homeless boy and his mother share their small cardboard-box home with an elderly stranger. The next morning, she is gone. And outside, the child thinks?but cannot believe?he sees an angel like the one on his December calendar page. The story ends a year later, when his situation has changed. His mother has a job and they have moved to a small apartment. It is then he observes that his calendar angel wears a rose just like the one the stranger had put on his Christmas tree. The message of charity as a risk worth taking in a dangerous world is a sobering, thoughtful holiday message. So deft in her writing, Bunting creates a mood or expresses an emotion with a simple sentence or phrase. Diaz's now-familiar angular, almost stained-glass figures dominate illustrations that are set against backgrounds so striking in their creativity and complexity that they would overwhelm a lesser story. The artist uses a mix of media and repetitive patterns to create unusual designs that give each backdrop a multidimensional look. One of a very few holiday books that has both art and writing so strong that they effectively mesh to create a truly unique title.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.