Many children have heard the Nativity story, how Mary and Joseph struggled to find a place to spend the night in Bethlehem. How they eventually found an innkeeper who offered them his stable.
Now this children's book adds another perspective to the events of that first Christmas Eve. “The Christmas Light” tells the fictional story of the innkeeper's daughter. At the beginning of the story, she is cranky and uncomfortable because of how crowded her family's inn is.
CLAUDIA CANGILLA MCADAM
Author, “The Christmas Light”
“She goes downstairs, leaves the loft, goes down to the main level of her family's home, gets some fire out of the fireplace, and remembers the family that's across the lane staying in her family's stable. And she goes across to bring them fire for warmth, because if she's cold, they must be freezing. So it's in that setting that she encounters the Child Jesus and has an alteration in her mood and a complete change of her life, because of that encounter.”
It's a fun spin on the traditional Nativity story. Claudia Cangilla McAdam says the underlying message is that children “can reap wonderful benefits from being compassionate and kind to other people.”
CLAUDIA CANGILLA MCADAM
Author, “The Christmas Light”
“It's a way of children understanding that any encounter with Jesus can be a turning point in their life. And hopefully this is a way for kids to deepen their relationship with Jesus by seeing the Nativity story in a new way.”
The book was fully illustrated by Igor Kovyar, who is very familiar with the Holy Land, where the story is set.
CLAUDIA CANGILLA MCADAM
Author, “The Christmas Light”
“His depictions of the Holy Family and Bethlehem I think are spot-on, because he lives there. So he knows what the people look like and what the geography is like. And so it's a great family book to share.”
With “The Christmas Light,” Claudia Cangilla McAdam wants to give young readers an opportunity to put themselves in the scenes that played out the night Jesus was born, to be transformed by a deeper understanding of Christmas.
CT
Sophia Institute Press
