Polish-born illustrator Janina Domanska, who was awarded a Caldecott Honor in 1971 for her If All the Seas Were One Sea, turns her attention to the traditional English Christmas carol, The First Noel, in this holiday picture-book. Each two-page spread features either a verse of the carol or its refrain along the bottom of the page, and full-color artwork depicting the Christmas story above. A musical arrangement of the carol, done by John Krumich, is included at the rear.

Although I have enjoyed many of Domansk'a folkloric retellings, from King Krakus and the Dragon to The Best of the Bargain, as well as the illustrations she contributed to Eric P. Kelly's Newbery Medal-winning novel, The Trumpeter of Krakow, I found that my reaction to The First Noel was at best lukewarm. The artwork, created using watercolor paints, colored dyes and black ink, was not always to my taste here. Her palette is vivid, and I liked her patterned backgrounds and stylized heavenly figures, from stars to angels, but her human characters were far less appealing. Her shepherds wore garish cloaks and odd-looking hats (one reminded me of an old-fashioned bathing cap), and had faces that looked a little "scribbly." I liked her elongated Three Magic better, but her Holy Family also didn't appeal. There's nothing to argue with in the text, of course (unless one dislikes the carol), but I was disappointed to see that Domanska used the five-verse version, as I grew up singing the six-verse one. I haven't come across many picture-books based on The First Noel, so if the reader is interested, it might still be worth seeking this one out, but I don't really recommend it that highly. ( )