Thursday, December 14, 2006

The Twenty-four Days Before Christmas


I believe this book is out of print, and used copies are getting harder to find. I lucked into a reasonably priced one, and I'm glad we did. We enjoyed this sweet little story by Madeleine L'Engle.

The Twenty-four Days Before Christmas: An Austin Family Story, invites us into the Austin family, and specifically into the mind of seven-year-old Vicky. It's Advent, and the family is following their beloved tradition of doing something special and meaningful every day of December to prepare for the birth of the Christ Child.

But this year is different. The family is also preparing for two other big events: Vicky is rehearsing to be the youngest-ever angel in the Christmas pageant, and Mother is preparing to have another baby, their fourth child.

Will the baby come too soon? Will Mother be at home for Christmas, or will she be in the hospital? Will she be able to see Vicky play the angel?

This is a lovely little book about answered prayers and the importance of family. Vicky's faith shines through the last words of the book, as she sees that God's way of answering our deepest desires is often unexpected, but always deserving of our awe and our thanks.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is one of our favorites as well. I still have our copy to be preserved for grandchild readings. It's sad that books like this go out of print while a lot of much less worthwhile stuff gets printed every day.

Anonymous said...

Karen,
Excuse the pop-up ads but here something I put together a couple of years ago when we read the book.

http://houseofliterature.tripod.com/id8.html

Lucky thing I got a copy way back then, huh? :)

Karen Edmisten said...

I agree, Liz. It's disheartening, isn't it?

Thanks, Cay! A great companion piece!

Suzanne Temple said...

This book sounds great. Thank you!

Anonymous said...

I am so glad you posted this! Lissa thought this might be the book I was looking for and it is! We read it the Christmas before last and I could not for the life of me remember the title or author to find it again. Thanks!