One Christmas Dawn

When her father has to leave their mountain home to go to work in the city one cold winter, a ten-year-old girl sees a special sign as she waits for his return on Christmas

A 10-year-old girl's Christmas wish comes true when her father returns home from his faraway work in time to celebrate with the family. With evocative turns of phrase, Ransom (More Than a Name) whisks readers back to the coldest winter in Appalachia: "the mountains held us in, like hands." Her version of a mountain legend nearly sighs with longing before it begins to tingle in anticipation of a poignant reunion. Fiore's (Dear Willie Rudd) frosty, rustic landscapes and homey interiors lit by the glow of kerosene lamps recall a bygone era; his finely calibrated use of color give his pictures a force equal to that of the text. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ages 5^-8. This story is reminiscent of "The Homecoming," on which the long-running television series The Waltons was based. It is 1917, and the residents of an Appalachian holler are enduring a cold, hard winter. Christmas is right around the corner, but times are tough, and Daddy must leave to find work at a sawmill in Bristol. He's to return by Christmas, but Christmas Eve comes, and still no father. Then at dawn, the narrator looks out her window and sees the whole yard abloom with flowers and greenery. When she wakes up again in the morning, her daddy is home. Ransom's text is full of everyday poetry: "The mountains held us in, like hands." The artwork has some stiffness, especially in facial expressions, but the outdoor scenes are majestic, full of mountains, ice, and sometimes flowers. Even if readers don't know the legend of the Glastonbury roses that bloom on Christmas (and which Ransom cites in her author's note), they should enjoy the warm feelings that flow over a cold Christmas night. Ilene Cooper