Posts Tagged ‘Mick Inkpen’

Nick Butterworth most well known for his stories about Percy the park keeper teams up with Mick Inkpen creator of Skipper the dog for this delightful children’s Christmas story, ‘The Nativity Play.’

Tracy and Sam our two main characters both have parts in their schools nativity play. Tracy is going to be an angel and Sam is going to be a shepherd.

“Tracy is one of the angels. She feels beautiful in her golden halo. She wants a magic wand. But mum says that angels don’t have magic wands.”

The lovely quality of this book is that it incorporates both the story of Jesus’ birth with the commercial side of Christmas, through the idea of watching the nativity play.
There is comical realism in the fact that Sam’s beard wont stay on, (its only made from wool and sellotape) and the fact that the camel can’t climb the stairs up to the stage (its two humps contain two children and one looses their balance) but at the same time there is a religious lesson being told about the meaning of Christmas.

The Nativity play takes us through the preparations for the show and is bound to delight adults as much as children. Mums will remember hours spent after work making costumes just like Tracy and Sams mum does. It also takes us through the play as if we are in the audience.

“Here come the shepherds! But where’s Sam?
Ah- it’s alright. He was in the toilet.”

This funny and realistic take on the classic Christmas tradition of the Nativity play will capture the hearts and tickle the funny bone of anyone who has ever been in or been to a Nativity play. The Nativity play captures both the precious moments and often shambolic moments of children acting out the night Jesus was born.

This book is evaluated as not green.