On the first day of Christmas My true love gave to me A partridge in a pear tree. So begins one of the best-loved songs of the yuletide season. Its verses celebrate the twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany, when the three Magi presented the baby Jesus with gold, frankincense, and myrrh - the very first Christmas gifts. Drawing inspiration from centuries-old illuminated manuscripts, Caldecott honor-medalist Ilse Plume here creates an Italian Renaissance setting for the lyrics of "The Twelve Days of Christmas". Plume's exquisite images, created in gouache and colored pencil, are rich in royal purple and gold, glowing vermilion and verdant green. In each, a beautiful, shy, young noblewoman with magnificent yellow tresses graciously receives a gift from her handsome Romeo: a brown partridge in a fruit-laden tree, two turtledoves in a golden cage...and, finally, twelve lords a-leaping, in the form of twelve ornamental figures for the lady's Christmas tree. This is a gift book that celebrates the joys of gift-giving. It includes sheet music and lyrics for the home musician.
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Ilse Plume is a collector and illustrator of children's songs and folktales from around the world. Her first book, The Bremen-Town Musicians, was a Caldecott Honor Book for 1981. She has since created many other beautiful works, including The Twelve Days of Christmas and she has also illustrated books by Jane Langton, Nancy Williard, & Charlotte Zolotow.
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