And There Were Shepherds: Nativity by Cynthia Rylant

FOR UNTO YOU THIS DAY IS BORN A SAVIOR.

YOU SHALL FIND THE BABE LYING IN A MANGER.

In those two incongruent sentences, Cynthia Rylant's Nativity (Beach Lane Books), opens with words from the gospels of Mathew and Luke, a revelation made, not to mighty rulers and priests, but to simple shepherds tending sheep, an event not taking place in the grandeur of a palace, but in a stable.

In the graceful and timeless words of two disciples, the simple story of the nativity is told as translated to English five centuries ago, illustrated in striking faux naif style by the noted author with her own illustrations, the people small on the opening pages and moving in closer to the scene in the stable, witnessed on that night only by the shepherds, their sheep, a horse, and a single hen. The three kings are yet to be come, and the night is still and quiet.

MARY KEPT THESE THESE THINGS AND PONDERED THEM IN HER HEART.

And then the author shifts the scene to a later time where a multitude is gathered before a small mount, when they hear familiar words.

BLESSED ARE THE POOR.... BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART....

In paintings like those of a small child, the old story is told in this simple account of the nativity by Rylant, award-winning storyteller, in a companion book to her earlier Creation. In their starred review, Publishers Weekly advises, "The decision to pair the Nativity story with the beatitudes is a wise and profound one, quietly helping Christian readers connect Jesus’s birth with the messages of kindness, humility, and compassion he would later preach."