Module 1: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Book Summary: The Herdman children are a group six brothers and sisters who you would want to call the police on because they are mean, rude and out of control.  Their father is not around because he jumped on a train and never came back, and their mother wants nothing to do with them, so she works long hours to avoid her children.  At school they bully everyone and even the teachers are fearful of their presence.  They are always trying to scheme and find a way to get something for free and one day Leroy Herdman finds out that the church gives refreshments at Sunday School.  The next Sunday, the Herdmans walked into church and the timing could not have been worse. It was time for the Christmas pageant, which is a major production in the town, and soon the Herdman's were going to be the stars!  Imogene threatened prissy-by-the-book Alice to not audition for Mary, which she does every year, and all the others took the remaining roles in the pageant.  Once they found out the story of the birth of Jesus, they put their on spin to the traditional Christmas story.  It ended up being the best pageant ever because it was genuine and innocent.  The Herdman's may have been terrors any other day, but this one time they truly were calm and gave The Best Christmas Pageant Ever!.

Reference: 

Robinson, B. (1972). The best Christmas pageant ever. New York, NY: Harper Collins.

Impressions: I thought this book was hilarious and realistic.  I could see so many of the children that I teach in the Herdman's and their innocence with not knowing about the birth of Jesus made the story intriguing.  There are many children who do not attend church and know about Christmas but do not know the reason behind it.  Robinson made this story suitable for school, church and home.  It is an easy reader for a chapter book and her black and white illustrations add character to the text.    I was able to picture the siblings and their antics better once I had a visual.  I am pretty sure this book would be controversial in school's because of the content, however, I feel it is a good depiction of research and learning of new traditions.  I would recommend this book to ages 8-12 and grades 3-8. That is a wide range, but I fell that age range would appreciate the humor and language in the book.

Professional Reviews:

From Kirkus Review
The young narrator, whose mother is saddled with directing the Church's annual Christmas pageant, becomes newly (but for the reader predictably) aware of the season's true meaning after the horrible Herdmans, a family of truly terrifying brats, bully themselves into the major roles -- Mary; Joseph, the Angel, the Wise Men -- and take their parts fervently if unconventionally to heart. By the starry, snow-soft ending this is revealed as the same old Christmas story after all (and really there was never a chance of any other outcome), but the Herdmans' outrages -- from setting fires, stealing, and blackmailing other children at home and school to burping the baby Jesus and bearing a ham (a more suitable offering in their hungry eyes than oil or perfume) at the pageant -- add enough spice to make this one livelier than most.

Reference:

Kirkus Review. (n.d.). [Review of the book The best christmas pageant ever, by B. Robinson]. Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/barbara-robinson-4/the-best-christmas-pageant-ever/

Library uses: I would use this story to show their different traditions that are celebrated around Christmas time in a school setting.

In a church setting this book would be great to read in a junior class to break up the monotony of the Christmas story that is told every year in the same way.