Baboushka and the Three Kings

By Ruth Robbins and Ruth. Illustrated by Nicolas Sidjakov. ROBBINS

Book Overview

"Baboushka, verse by Edith M. Thomas, music by Mary Clement Sanks": p. [26]-[27]. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0395426472
• ISBN13: 9780395426470
• Release Date: January 1986
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.0" x 0.3" x 6.5"
• Age Range: 4 to 7 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 2

Customer Reviews

A Beautiful Russian Christmas Tale

One day three kings riding a cart pulled by three white horses stopped at Baboushka's simple Russian home. They were following a star, seeking a child and they were bearing expensive gifts. They asked Baboushka to journey with them, but she declined. After they left she felt she'd made a mistake, that she should have gone with the wise men, however it has snowed and she is unable to follow their tracks. So every Christmas season for the rest of her life she went about searching and giving out small gifts in the silent night. Baboushka is sort of the Russian version of St. Nicholas and it's well told. My girls and I liked the Picasso like illustrations of Nicolas Sidjakov's. At Christmas we always sing the Baboushka song in the back of the book. We have loved this little book at our house, we will go on loving it.

A Russian Christmas story.

This is a little book for children that is based on the Russian Christmas tale about the old woman Baboushka who is visited one winter's night by three kings who are searching for a new born child. They ask her to come with them but she can't, saying that she has to finish her chores. Later, bearing gifts, she desides to search for the kings and the babe herself. She visits houses asking about the babe and leaves gifts behind. This becomes the basis for a Russian Christmas tradition. The illustrator of the book was Nicholas Sidjokov and the book won the 1961 Caldecott Medal for best illustration in a book for children. His illustrations enhance the telling of this old Russian Christmas story.

Baboushka and the Three Kings is a book kids will love.

Baboushka and the Three Kings is a book of hope and wonder. It has a simple moral: reach for the stars and follow your heart. This is an inspirational story to read.

An interesting book with beautiful illustrations.

This story adapted from a Russian folktale realtes an episode in the journey of the wise men to Bethlehem. While passing through Russia, they stop at a hut and ask Baboushka if she will join them. At first she declines to search for the Babe in a bitter snow storm, and they move on. The next day, she relents and sets out after them but cannot find their trail. She gives the meager gifts she has packed for the Babe to some children and searches the next year at the time of the Babe's birth. Nicolas Sidjakov's simple and abstract illustrations add to the text. They reiterate the Russian theme of the storyline through the use of sttrong reds, yellows, and blues. The characters' large eyes lend an almost-Byzantine, iconic appearance to the drawings, which may not appeal to everyone. Though these drawings are almost forty years old, they are still appealing to the modern audience. Sidjakov's abstraction of Russian Orthodox iconography gives the illustrations a timeless quality. The text presents the folktale in an interesting manner. Often when stories are translated from other languages, some of the flavor of the original gets lost. This story seems to maintain the feeling of other Russian folktales, which usually center on peasants elevated to high social status or importnce. Baboushka becomes a sort of Santa Claus, bringing children presents at what we know as Christmas. It is a thoroughly enjoyable tale.