Ozark Night Before Christmas

by Amanda McWilliams, James Rice (illustrator)

Santy's arrival by johnboat is announced by a ruckus between his pet raccoon and Paw's coonhound. After a feast of ham biscuits, Maw and Paw open their musical gifts, and Santy joins in on the frollicatin'.

Genres: Christmas, Picture Books

32 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 2004

About the author

Amanda McWilliams was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, and now lives with her husband and son in Mandeville, Louisiana.

Reviews

[Kim Hampton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cute version of The Night Before Christmas.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a most interesting version of Clement C. Moore's classic poem 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. The regional dialect was a bit difficult to discern, but I tried to just roll with it, letting the familiar rhythm of the poem carry me along and just do my best with the strangely spelled words.

I thought the narrative was humorous and the illustrations were colorful and nicely detailed. My favorite was the picture of Santy with the racoon on his shoulder.

I'm not sure if our girls truly appreciated the Ozark charm of the tale, but it was fun to see how the classic poem was interpreted in such a wild, rural area. We enjoyed reading this book together.