Picture book interpretations of famous songs seem to be all the rage at the moment. In this festive and magical picture book, the well-known song Silent Night is paired up with illustrations of the even more well-known nativity story to create a beautiful Christmastime read.

The illustrations are flat, but the illustrator pulls this style off well and manages to express a lot of emotion despite (or perhaps because of) the apparent simplicity of the images. In particular the scene where Mary is staring down at baby Jesus really pulls at the heartstrings.

Another thing I loved about the illustrations was that the characters are not "whitewashed" as is often the case in Western depictions of the nativity.

I have no doubt that this book would be popular in any Christian - and indeed non-Christian - household during the festive period.

Beautiful illustrations! This is the story of the nativity told using the words of the famous Christmas carol, Silent Night. I would say this book is geared more to adults than children, though.

Silent Night by Lara Hawthorne is a beautifully illustrated picture book for children. The book uses the lyrics to the Christmas carol, Silent Night, which then have lovely illustrations matching the song. I could see that this would be a beautiful book to give as a gift to nieces, nephews and grandchildren for Christmas, so they could begin to understand the Christmas story.

The book also contains the history of how the song Silent Night came to be, and includes the lyrics on one page.

5 stars for this book! Perfect book for gift giving!

Thanks to #NetGalley as well as the author and publisher for a free e-book copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a beautifully illustrated children’s book that uses the lyrics of the famous carol, Silent Night, to tell the Christmas story.

There’s something about children’s books that appeals to a wider audience during the Christmas season.

The illustration in this book was a beautIful interpretation of the nativity set to the words of the hymn ‘Silent Night’. I loved sharing this book with my 7 & 3 year old children. They both joined in singing along, and asked for it to be read again.

I was glad to see the holy family and others being presented as being Middle Eastern as often I have only seen them as Caucasian, which isn’t accurate.

Thank you to #NetGalley and the publisher for my free copy in return for an unbiased review.

I love the Advent season and can be caught listening to Christmas carols long before it is thought appropriate. To foster similar love in my two children, we have a tradition of wrapping up books with winter or holiday themes and beginning after Thanksgiving, each daughter opens a book a day. Every year I add a couple new titles and remove lackluster ones. New to my collection last year were three picture books with song lyrics as the only text.

Silent Night by Lara Hawthrone is a beautiful book with the simple but profound lyrics of the beloved song sprinkled on each page. The illustrations are beautiful, and since I grew up seeing Jesus portrayed as white although he was a Jew in the Middle East, special mention must be made that I am drawn to the accurate representation throughout the book -- the holy family, shepherds, wisemen, even angels have dark skin.

I love this picture book and expect it will soon join in the Advent book rotation, where it will remain for years to come.

(I received a digital ARC from NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group - Frances Lincoln Childrens in exchange for my honest review.)

I have read illustrated versions of Silent Night before, but I appreciate this one for a couple reasons.

For one thing, I really like the illustrations, especially the contrasting tones -- the dark backgrounds make the central figures and settings of the nativity story stand out all the more, perfectly portraying the paradox of both "night" and "all is bright," reminding us how strongly a light can stand out in the darkness.

Also, I appreciate that the people in the scenes here are portrayed as the Middle Easterners that they were, with dark skin, rather than Americanized as whitewashed Caucasians, which has long been a problem with the way the nativity (and Jesus in general) has been presented to children.

It can be a lot of fun to "sing" a book to children when we're used to reading, so this is a lovely way to package this beloved Christmas carol.

(Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy.)

This is a beautiful Christmas picture book! The lyrics from the carol "Silent Night" are accompanied by fabulous illustrations. And I absolutely love that all of the people have Middle Eastern skin tones!

This book is absolutely stunning! I really love the artwork in this book. Very well done! I would totally buy this for myself, just to have it out at Christmas time. :)

What a beautiful book this is based around a familiar text. The illustrations are superb. This will definitely be a Christmas favourite in my house.

I read this with my children (ages 5,5, and 2), and they all liked the illustrations and given that they were petty quiet while I was reading, I think they were touched with a sense of reverence conveyed by both the song and the illustrations. Really nicely done.

I read an ARC from the publisher via #NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

The famous nativity story told for very young kids, using the lyrics as a backdrop to the rudimentary artwork. Includes the rarely heard third verse.
What is there to say? If this is simply an illustrated version of the carol, that’s fine, but if this is meant as an introduction to this religion. . . not so much. Kids being curious, they’re likely to ask about the words they don’t know, of which there are plenty.
2.5 pushed up to 3/5

This book has the reverence and quality to quickly become that cozy traditional Christmastime read aloud (or sing aloud!) for all families. The collage illustrations speak so loudly to the wonder of the season of Christ's birth. One of my favorite details is that the author/illustrator choose to respect the actual skin color that Mary and Joseph would have had! This is one of the first Western Christmas books I've seen with the accurate skin color and I love that my children can see that every year in a book that will certainly become our own family reading tradition.

The book uses the song, Silent Night, as its only text. The lyrics are distributed among the gorgeous illustrations, which are really the mouthpiece that tell the story.

Beautiful!

'Silent Night' with illustrations by Lara Hawthorne is a picture book illustrating a beloved Christmas hymn.

The night of Christ's birth is told through the words of the song 'Silent Night' and the pictures in this book. The illustrations are nice and show a more typical middle Eastern skin color. Which was a nice change from much of the westernized versions I've seen.

Following the book are a few paragraphs telling the history of the song.

This would be a nice Christmas book to share with a young child at bedtime. I suppose it could always be sung instead of read too.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Quarto Publishing Group-Frances Lincoln Childrens, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

Silent Night by Lara Hawthorne is a beautiful depiction of the classic carol, Silent Night. The illustrations are detailed and the textures are touch worthy. I wish the textures could be felt by the reader. I will be adding this book to our Christmas reading list and I recommend everyone do the same.

Beautifully illustrated this book is all the words to Silent Night the Christmas Carol. Throughout the book along with the words it shows pictures of that part of the song. The back of the book also has the history of the carol and information. So many children know the song but not what it means. This is a great way to teach children the true meaning of the song. I recommend this book for ages 4+.
I received this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Absolutely lovely. What a beautiful rendering of a traditional Christmas song! My children will love this!

Lovely retelling, using traditional,song lyrics with excellently realised artwork. Very good, overtly religious books tend not to sell through in our shop very well, but I really liked it.

Silent Night is a beautiful picture book to accompany the classic Christmas carol, and I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed reading it! The illustrations are perfect for the story, and make for a lovely Christmas book to share with the whole family.

This is generally like an illustrated version of "Silent Night". The color and patterns of the illustrations worked really well with the lyrics that were posted. I gave this 3 stars for the sole reason that it was nothing more than that. Despite that, the book is something that would be great as a present gift to a child during Christmas.