Friendly Beasts: an old English Christmas carol

By Rebecca St. James

“Jesus our brother kind and good Was humbly born in a stable rude And the friendly beasts around him stood Jesus our brother, kind and good” Join a cow, a camel, a dove, a donkey, and a sheep as they explain what gifts they brought the son of God on the very first Christmas. The Friendly Beasts offers a new way to look at the birth of Jesus through beautiful, memorable illustrations, traditional holiday lyrics, and a CD with narration and music performed by Rebecca St. James.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Release date: Nov 6, 2012
• ISBN: 9780310728962

Rebecca St. James

Rebecca St. James, an Australian born Christian recording artist, is both a Grammy Award winner and multiple Dove Award recipient. She is also the bestselling author of  Wait for Me, SHE Teen, and What Is He Thinking. She has appeared in the film Sarah’s Choice and provided a voice in VeggieTales An Easter Story.  

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Reviews for Friendly Beasts

[abigailadams26 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The text of the classic Christmas carol, The Friendly Beasts, in which the various animals describe their gifts to the Christ Child, is paired with beautiful illustrations from artist Anna Vojtech in this lovely holiday picture-book. The book also includes a CD containing narration and singing performance from Australian musician Rebecca St. James...I enjoy tracking down picture-book presentations of Christmas carols - an annual reading project of mine in the holiday season - and I am quite fond of this particular carol, so I was excited to pick up The Friendly Beasts: An Old English Christmas Carol. Although I didn't get a chance to listen to the CD, I enjoyed the book quite a bit. I've run into the artwork of Anna Vojtech before, in Joseph Bruchac's The First Strawberries, and I thought she did a good job here, capturing the devoted expressions of the animals, and the wonder of that first Christmas night. This carol is a popular one - no doubt the animal characters endear it to young children - and there have been numerous picture-books devoted to it, over the years. These include Tomie dePaola's The Friendly Beasts: An Old English Christmas Carol, Helen Ward's The Animals' Christmas Carol, Sarah Chamberlain's The Friendly Beasts: A Traditional Christmas Carol, Laura Nelson Baker's The Friendly Beasts, Charles Causley's The Animals' Carol, and Jan Burlingham's The Friendly Beasts: A Medieval French Carol - to name but a few! As is apparent from the list above, it has been described both as an English and a French carol, owing no doubt to the fact that it combines a medieval French melody with more modern English text. Whatever the case may be, it is a lovely song, and this is a lovely book - one that is recommended to those seeking an appealing picture-book presentation of it.