The Horn Book Guide

PRESCHOOL

Farber, Norma

How the Hibernators Came to Bethlehem

32 pp. | Walker | October, 2006 | Trade ISBN 0-8027-9610-9 $9.95
Reissue (1980)

(2) PS Illustrated by Barbara Cooney. In this reissue of a long-unavailable holiday book (adapted from a poem originally published in the December 1966 Horn Book), a star awakens the "winter-sleeping" creatures (e.g., bear, badger, skunk) and sings them to Bethlehem. About the 1980 edition, Paul Heins noted the "simple, unabashed realism" of Cooney's art, which, along with Farber's respectful text, celebrates the hibernators "as part of a divine plan."

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2006