In the claymation special Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Rankin
and Bass purport to give us the origins of Santa Claus, explaining that
he was an orphan raised by toymakers who started his yearly distribution
of toys as a young man. They have an explanation for everything, from
how he met Mrs. Claus to why he makes his deliveries on Christmas. Of
course, they made it all up.
The Legend of St. Nicholas,
written by Dandi Daley Mackall and illustrated by Guy Porfirio, has
fanciful elements, but its purpose is to introduce children to the real
St. Nicholas, who was neither magical nor immortal but who, motivated by
his deep Christian faith, devoted his life to random acts of generosity
- a sort of third-century clandestine Percy Ross.
The legend
is framed by the story of Nick, a modern boy who isn't too enthused
about buying Christmas gifts for his brothers and even less inclined to
donate his money to charity. As he browses the CD section on a
last-minute shopping trip, hoping he can get cheap enough presents that
he can afford to buy one for himself, Nick overhears the store's Santa
telling a story about a young man long ago with the same name but a very
different outlook.
The tale is pretty much as I've heard it
before. Nicholas, the only child of wealthy parents, was orphaned at a
young age and decided to use his parents' fortune to improve the welfare
of various poor families. Each version of the story seems to involve
him slipping money for dowries into a particular household, and he does
so here, but Mackall makes his task more personal by introducing three
distinct characters as his best friends and having him help them.
The story is perfectly well-written, but it's the illustrations that
really stand out. Porfirio makes Nicholas a vibrant youth, probably
still a teenager. While the rich paintings clearly give us a sense of
the setting, Nicholas and his friends also feel contemporary, easy for
modern children to relate to. One of my favorite pictures shows Nicholas
as a boy, visiting Asia with his parents and casting a concerned glance
at the poverty-stricken children on the periphery. Each of the
illustrations is soft and detailed, very appealing to readers of any
age.
The book is published by Zonderkidz, a division of
Zondervan, which publishes Christian books. It would make a great
inclusion in a church library. Not only does it introduce an interesting
part of Christian history, it encourages children to embrace the spirit
of giving and recognize that, as it says in James 1:17, included in the
back of the book, "Every good and perfect gift is from above."
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