Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem

Children's Literature - Sheilah Egan

Knowing the widely varied styles the illustrators have used in the past, I was eager to examine their choices for Angelou's inspiring poem. They met the daunting task with great imagination, inspired talent, and spiritual grace suitable for the intent of the poem. First read at the White House Tree Lighting Ceremony in 2005, Angelou's welcome to the Christmas season is the expression of a community's joining in a celebration of peace. Angelou's hope for a "community" coming together in a moment of unified acceptance of the idea of living peacefully together is a reflection of her own hopes for the entire world. Her words of hope, peace, and understanding are perfectly complemented by the scenes of a small town's procession toward a "market square gathering" of people of all ethnicities and beliefs. Candlelight shines in the beautiful faces of the population as we follow one particular family as it passes the street musician, the artist at the Glass Art shop, the children building snowmen, the shoppers in the streets—each time obviously inviting everyone to join them in their trek to the center of town. The final scene shows everyone standing together in a shining moment of universal understanding and peace. The illustrations are a marvelous incorporation of oils, acrylics, and the use of textured fabrics—melded together in a perfect echo of Angelou's stirring words. The colors are softly muted but glowingly alive—the depth of the textures and the saturation of the colors give the pictures a "touchable" reality that invites the reader right into the charming scenes. There is much to discuss and think about in this collaboration of exceptional artistry and powerful poem.Hearing Angelou read the poem on the enclosed CD is a very moving experience—a stroke of genius on the part of the publisher. Add this title to every collection—public or personal. Reviewer: Sheilah Egan

School Library Journal

Gr 3 Up

This poem was largely inspired by the terrible natural disasters occurring throughout the world when Angelou was invited to read at the 2005 White House tree-lighting ceremony. Thus, the opening lines rumble and roil almost menacingly to illustrate the climate of doubt and anxiety into which the spirit of Christmas arrives. Hope enters as a whisper and grows until it is "louder than the explosion of bombs." The harsher aspects of the world fade as people of all faiths and races join together in trust and brotherhood. Johnson and Fancher's paintings, rendered in oil, acrylic, and fabric on canvas, elegantly depict a calm, snow-blanketed village where children play, families shop, and artisans ply their crafts. People gather at the Town Hall for sweets and cocoa, and then, in a candlelight procession, join again to sing beneath the stars. This is a comforting book that gets to the heart of what Christmas should mean. As an added treat, Angelou reads the poem on the accompanying CD.-Linda Israelson, Los Angeles Public Library

Kirkus Reviews

Angelou's poem considers peace as a joyous concept that rises up during the Christmas season, drawing in and including those of all faiths, sweeping everyone along with its power. This visual interpretation of the poem follows the residents of a small town as they trek through deep snow to gather at their town hall for a holiday celebration. Although there are lighted Christmas trees throughout the town, this particular celebration is a nondenominational community dinner and candle-lighting, with people of many faiths and backgrounds joining together in peaceful solidarity. Johnson and Fancher's understated, mixed-media illustrations use fabric scraps for plaid and checked coats on the townspeople, with darker fabrics for buildings and thick brushstrokes of white paint over cloth for the snow. Although doubtlessly well-intended, the author's invitation to Buddhists, Confucians, Jains, Jews and Muslims-not to mention "Nonbelievers"-to join in the celebration of "the Birth of Jesus Christ / Into the great religions of the world" is at best tone-deaf and at worst frankly assimilationist. (Picture book/poetry. 6 & up)