Nativity Book #22 - The Legend of St. Nicholas

This is the twenty second of my postings about our 40 books of Nativity. You can read about the tradition here.

Of course, on December 6th (after the gifts were found in the stockings, and they had been eaten and enjoyed for a while), we had to open and read this book about St. Nicholas. I've already said that The Life of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker is my favorite children's book about St. Nicholas. But this one is a close, close second for our favorite.

This book is The Legend of St. Nicholas by Demi. I should first mention something very interesting that happened when we opened this book this year. In language arts and history this year with my second grader, we've been talking a lot about legends and what legends are. (For example, the story of King Arthur is a legend. He may have existed, but we don't know for certain, and the stories written about him are legends.) Well, when this beloved book came out, my 7yo immediately said. "But there's one big problem. This book is NOT a legend!" Yep. Good call kiddo!

Demi is not a specifically Orthodox writer, but she does a very respectful job telling the story of this saint, including many, many stories from his life. I only have to correct it a bit in one or two places. And it DOES tell the story about St. Nicholas hitting Arius which we really love, but not in quite enough detail. The best part about this book is probably the illustrations. They are wonderful - especially those images of St. Nicholas inside churches. They are great depictions of the interior of Byzantine churches.