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The Friendly Beasts
“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.
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.
24 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2003
27 people want to read
About the author
Rebecca St. James
55 books128 followersRebecca St. James, an Australian-born Christian recording artist, is both a Grammy Award winner and a multiple Dove Award recipient. She is also the bestselling author of Wait for Me, SHE Teen, and What is He Thinking. In addition, St. James has appeared in the film Sarah's Choice and lent her voice to VeggieTales' An Easter Story. www.rsjames.com
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
December 18, 2021
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.
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.
October 18, 2019
The animals all tell what they gave to baby Jesus on the first Christmas. The book comes with a CD for the song from which this story is derived. It is a cute version of the Christian, Christmas story told by the friendly beasts who were present at the birth of Jesus. Lovely illustrations accompany the song. This book is just right for the Christmas season.
December 28, 2012
In this version of an old English Christmas Carol, a donkey, cow, sheep, camel and a dove tell about the gifts they gave to the baby Jesus on the first Christmas. Beautifully illustrated.
November 15, 2022
Ages: 3 - 8
Cleanliness: nothing to note.
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Cleanliness: nothing to note.
**Like my reviews? Then you should follow me! Because I have hundreds more just like this one. With each review, I provide a Cleanliness Report, mentioning any objectionable content I come across so that parents and/or conscientious readers (like me) can determine beforehand whether they want to read a book or not. Content surprises are super annoying, especially when you’re 100+ pages in, so here’s my attempt to help you avoid that!
So Follow or Friend me here on GoodReads! And be sure to check out my bio page to learn a little about me and the Picture Book/Chapter Book Calendars I sell on Etsy!
September 24, 2012
Starting with a sparkly textured cover I’m already excited. As a song that I have loved from my childhood Christmas memories I’m looking forward to sharing this with my girls again and again. I will definitely be wanting to get my hands on a real copy. The illustrations bring the song and story to life and each page provides images worth examining and imagining. I have to say though that I’ve never seen a blonde version of Mary, so that was unique.
The CD has four tracks including Rebecca singing The Friendly Beasts, a bonus track of her song Shine Your Glory Down, and these are followed by an almost three minute piece of Rebecca’s Christmas memories and then lastly a spoken narration of the book/song. It is lovely to listen to and I’m delighted to have experienced it. She has, of course, a lovely voice and does it quite elegant justice.
This would make a fabulous Christmas gift!
*Thanks to Zondervan for providing and ARC for review, including CD.*
scheduled: http://creativemadnessmama.com/blog/2...
The CD has four tracks including Rebecca singing The Friendly Beasts, a bonus track of her song Shine Your Glory Down, and these are followed by an almost three minute piece of Rebecca’s Christmas memories and then lastly a spoken narration of the book/song. It is lovely to listen to and I’m delighted to have experienced it. She has, of course, a lovely voice and does it quite elegant justice.
This would make a fabulous Christmas gift!
*Thanks to Zondervan for providing and ARC for review, including CD.*
scheduled: http://creativemadnessmama.com/blog/2...
December 8, 2022
The preschool children at the Lutheran school loved this. The animals are pictured nice and big, and the colors are soothing but vivid enough to catch the eye. I do a singing reading version and that works well to keep them entertained.
November 29, 2016
Beautiful illustrations. The carol is sweet, but basically gives the animals credit for brining Jesus into the world.
December 20, 2017
Listened to the audio of this, it was ok.
December 14, 2022
This book is beautifully illustrated to the words of an old English Christmas carol that most are familiar with. Well done.
July 26, 2023
Beautiful book! I especially loved the Anna Vojtech illustrations.
December 9, 2023
Delightful.
December 17, 2024
A Camel, a Dove, a Donkey, and a Sheep express in rhyme and song what gifts the brought the baby Jesus on the very first Christmas.
December 10, 2025
CD included! I love books you can sing! Lovely illustrations complement the story/song.
July 14, 2016
I didn't realize it was a Christmas book until I started reading it last night. I didn't notice the sub-title of the book until after I was done reading the book. Haha. So, we made it Christmas in July last night!
It was actually a really cute book. All the animals describe how they helped out the night Jesus was born. The rhyme was pretty easy to read. It wasn't until the very end of the book where the last line repeated on two different pages that I realize it was really set up to be a song.
I wish I had a CD player in my daughter's room so when we have books like this, we could immediately listen to it. I rarely ever remember to bring the book downstairs so we can listen to the song.
The illustrations were really nice also. They depicted the animals as friendly and sweet. The colors weren't obnoxious. It was a really good bedtime book and a sweet way to introduce the story of Christmas.
This is a book we'll probably pick up again at Christmas time.
It was actually a really cute book. All the animals describe how they helped out the night Jesus was born. The rhyme was pretty easy to read. It wasn't until the very end of the book where the last line repeated on two different pages that I realize it was really set up to be a song.
I wish I had a CD player in my daughter's room so when we have books like this, we could immediately listen to it. I rarely ever remember to bring the book downstairs so we can listen to the song.
The illustrations were really nice also. They depicted the animals as friendly and sweet. The colors weren't obnoxious. It was a really good bedtime book and a sweet way to introduce the story of Christmas.
This is a book we'll probably pick up again at Christmas time.
November 23, 2012
Animals were included in the Christian story of the Nativity, and this traditional carol focuses upon their perspective of the events. This would be a fine book for outreach to Christian communities with the animal welfare message.
December 31, 2015
My little one really liked this title. I thought the illustrations of the animals were strange... especially their teeth and mouths. C thought it was hilarious when the cow was "going to lick baby Jesus." However, I don't think that is what the illustrator was going for.
December 9, 2012
The copy I bought has a CD with Rebecca St. James singing the song, as well as narrating the book.
December 27, 2012
Didn't listen to the song.
Read
September 5, 2013Beautiful illustrations for this sweet carol.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews