The Visit

I read The Visit: The Origin of "The Night Before Christmas" by Mark Kimball Moulton
I received a free ARC through NetGalley
4 stars

This is the 2013 edition of the book that has been out for a few years. It is the story handed down generation to generation about how the famous poem came about. Clement C. Moore made it for his daughter that was sick in bed at Christmastime. He finally wrote it down 40 years later, shortly before his death. At the end of this book, you can see the full poem in Moore's handwriting.

This book is written in verse similar to "The Night Before Christmas" text. There are rhyming stanzas. It goes through the story of a child visiting her grandfather in New York City, seeing a large city from a child's eyes. Then, her grandfather tells her the story of how his grandfather came up with the famous poem. It explains parts of the story that aren't current, that many kids wouldn't understand now.

I enjoyed the story. It was sweet as well as educational. There were some amazing rhymes, similar to the original poem. I am a sucker for rhyming tales, and the rhymes in this one ranged from adequate to eloquent. At 54 pages, I felt the story was too long to be completely rhyming. It would have been better to tell the story and throw in some poetic pages.

There are a lot of aspects that make this book a winner and just a few that kept it from making the 5 star status. It is beautiful and mostly beautifully written. Some children, especially a little older ones, and many adults will treasure this story.