The Wonderful Story of Christmas

Author: Claude Lafortune

This picture book was inspired by a theatrical work for children first staged in the winter of 2000 in Montreal. In it, the author made his debut as principal actor and narrator. The overwhelming success of the production (selected as Best Play for Children by l’Académie du théâtre du Québec) led the author to conceive of a picture book featuring the characters created for the theatre, enabling parents and teachers to adapt the story to their needs and specific situations. Today as much as ever, the story of the first Christmas continues to fascinate young and adult alike, regardless of religious background. Claude Lafortune is a world-famous visual artist who works with paper and card, creating richly detailed, three-dimensional life-size figures. This book captures the magic of these engaging works of art to tell the story of the first Christmas. In addition to this book’s richly illustrated history of the extraordinary birth of Jesus, the paperback activity edition of The Wonderful Story of Christmas includes a 24-page section of cut-out characters from the story, so that parents, teachers and children can perform the story or recreate the scenes at home or in the classroom.