1/1/2022 Just finished my annual rereading of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.  Still funny but this year it brought a tear to my eye as I realized how much the Herdmans changed.  As the narrator's mother said that there was good deep down in the Herdmans, I saw that she was right.  They changed.  When it was all over, they would not take back their ham nor take the candy canes and little Bibles but all Imogene wanted was a picture of Mary.  The Herdmans made the Nativity story realistic--refugees from another land, poor, alone, no place to go.  Kings who are tired from their journey.  It was a new way to see this story.  And it is always worth rereading every Christmas.

I know for a fact I read this book in elementary school, but I didn't remember anything about it. It turns out 'The Best Christmas Pageant Ever' is about how the Herdmans, a gang of ill-bred ruffian poor children, hijack the Christmas play at Church because they thought there would be food, and they end up teaching everyone in town the lesson that.....they have feelings? I think that's it. It was marvelous.

The narrative, from the perspective of the daughter of the woman who ends up having to direct the pageant, is deadpan and with the humor mostly being carried by the dialogue between her parents and a lengthy segment where the hard-bitten urchins are disgusted by the treatment Mary and Joseph receive in Bethlehem and the poor quality of gifts offered by the wise men.

The humor is great, but there is a core of genuine sympathy in the book. Robinson cleverly cuts through all of the 'expected' traditions and finds a way to express the, yes I'm going to say it, the true meaning of Christmas. There isn't much resolution, but it does raise many questions, which can be a good thing when one enters into the dicey territory of Christmas fodder. This is a quick read for Christmas day and can be supplemented by the 1983 television special.

 

Herdmans

 

Next: 'The Best School Year Ever'

I laughed throughout this hilarious story of the Herdmans consisting of Ralph, Imogene, Leroy, Claude, Ollie, and Gladys. My first thought is that I can see why the kids are terrible if their parents named them that.

This is honestly a short and sweet story about a clan of terrible kids who have their whole neighborhood and community in terror of what they are going to do next. I did laugh at one line that said that the Herdmans were the worst kids in the history of the world, they lied, stole, and played with matches.

Yes, apparently playing with matches is equal to all of that.

The story takes a surprisingly sweet turn to the ending. The illustrations by Laura Cornell were great and really brought the Herdmans to life.

I read this for The (Mostly) Dead Writers Society 2016 Genre Fiction challenge. And with this final book/review I completed my challenge for the year!

Another funny book about the Herdman clan!  I would use this book at the beginning of the year as a model for what not to do in the classroom.  As the students read about the Herdman's antics, allow them to create what they believe would be important classroom rules for your classroom.  This is something teachers will normally do anyway, but with the text, literacy could be incorporated.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever! was one of the funniest books that I read as a child.  Follow the adventures of the Herdman family as they navigate the Christmas season.  The Herdmans are children who lie, cheat, and steal.  They are the least likely children to be cast as the lead in the church Christmas play.  Students will love this as a read aloud during December.  A fun project to do would be to break up in groups, pick a scene from the book, and create a complete puppet show.  Students would be responsible for creating the bag puppets, writing the skits, and performing for the class.  This would be appropriate for grades 3-5.