Tired of “Partridge in a Pear Tree” already? George Mendoza and Etiene Delessert have an alternative – A “Wart Snake in a Fig Tree”.
This little book takes the words of that dreary Christmas song and makes you want to sing it all over again. Its illustrated by Etiene Delessert. I first got to know Delessert’s illustrations when I was a child reading Ionesko’s remarkable “Story Number One” – sadly that book is lost. Or maybe one of my siblings has it?
Here is the fist one – “On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…A Wart Snake in a Fig Tree!”:
The text is illustrated too. Now I’m giving it all away by showing you the final page so you can see the whole crazy poem:
Here is a closeup:
I chose some of my favorite gifts. “Six Shadows Lurking”:
And “Eight Snow Wolves Wailing”. Check out Santa and his wolves in the background:
Its all so outrageous. “Eleven Lizards Boiling, Ten Devils Grinning” 😀 The print quality of my copy is not great, otherwise I’d post them all.
I must add, I’ve been writing this post while listening to Matisyahu,a Hasidic Jewish Reggae Rapper, just to complete the strange mix. Works, somehow.
Masha du Toit 
Dec 18, 2009 @ 22:36:28
i used to have this book when i was a kid!!! i loved it!!! now thats the version i’ve taught my own kids! we always sing it together around christmas time. love it love it!!
Dec 19, 2009 @ 06:25:17
Oh that’s wonderful. I much prefer this version 🙂
Dec 19, 2009 @ 15:11:20
2 dogs a whining
Dec 20, 2009 @ 18:19:26
I purchased this book a few months ago on Abe. My two favorites are “seven ghouls acaroling” and “twelve days of raining”. I actually prefer old kids books because most were printed on non-glossy paper and I find it gives such a different texture to the illustrations.
Dec 21, 2009 @ 07:15:54
I think my favourite illustration is of “five useless things” 🙂 I think the “useless things” are books? The copy I have was not printed that well so its difficult to make out some of the details.
Dec 22, 2009 @ 02:33:21
The door frame is made up of five books. It leads to a countryside where there’s a castle,a rocket, a walking tv, a man-bird smoking a pipe, a tree filled with colorful birds, flowers and a miniature Santa with wings.
Dec 22, 2009 @ 07:01:30
Good! So I was interpreting it correctly. In my copy, its not entirely clear if the shapes framing that scene are books as the print is a little blurry. Love the image though.
Dec 25, 2009 @ 10:43:58
This is very lovely. Love the inline illustrations. 🙂
I guess you are celebrating your Christmas right now.
Merry Christmas and I wish you a very very happy new year!
See you next year! 😀
Jan 21, 2010 @ 21:45:30
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