Worth A Read Yes
Length 128
Quick Review The Herdman kids decide to take part in a church’s Christmas pageant, and it is the town’s nightmare incarnate. The director decides to make it the best pageant ever, anyways.
I had never read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson, but I had read the play many, many years ago. Not only did I read it, I played one of the main characters, Imogene Herdman, in the play as a kid. It was fun to revisit this poignant and funny story full of devilish children in a Christmas pageant.
Imogene, Ralph, Claude, Leroy, Ollie, and Gladys Herdman are a nightmare. With almost no parental supervision, they run amok around town and in school. A reputation for bullying, theft, and utter chaos follows them everywhere. None of the other children like them, and even the teachers avoid them. The Herdman’s are all but beyond help. By chance, they end up at Sunday school and take an interest in the Christmas pageant. Even as everything is falling apart for the director, she decides to make it the best pageant the church has ever had, even with the disastrous Herdmans.
Published in 1972, I was shocked by how progressive it was towards gender equality and religious views. Robinson calls out society’s female stereotype for being sweet in the first sentence, “The Herdmans were absolutely the worst kids in the history of the world. They lied and stole and smoked cigars (even the girls)…” The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is 128 page children’s novel and a social critique making points on parenting, religion, the education system, government, and culture in general. Robinson writes an entertaining story full of funny and teachable moments sure to enchant children while leaving adults with a story full of nuance and insight.
A little girl in the same class as Imogene Herdman is the narrator of the story. The narrator is also the daughter of the pageant’s director. She has a fairly passive role within the story, but her narration has a really beautiful arc of understanding and growth, which is the same arc Robinson hopes the reader will travel on.
I grew up in a progressive, Christian church. I knew a lot more about the history of the Christmas story than others, but there is a gap in how the Christmas story is told in church and how it is written in the Bible. Robinson makes a point of calling attention to this gap. The narrator acts as the mirror for the reader to, likely, see themselves in. The Herdman children are the fresh perspective. Without a religious background, they’re making observations on the weird parts of the story most people and churches gloss over. The narrator is a good person, but her mind is opened by the seeming antagonists: The Herdmans. She has really poignant moments of growth, “[Jesus] could have had colic, or been fussy, or hungry like any other baby. After all, that was the whole point of Jesus – that he didn’t come down on a cloud or like something out of “Amazing Comic,” but that he was born and lived… a real person.” and “I had never thought much about Herod. He was just a name, somebody in the Bible. Herodtheking.” I thought these were incredibly beautiful moments within The Best Christmas Pageant Ever because I have seen adults who have not been able to make those same realizations.
One of my favorite moments in the book to read was the line ”We put Glady in a bureau drawer,” from Imogene because I remember saying it on stage. There were several scenes I very much appreciated. Imogene running around with a cigar was another because I had so much fun playing that character. Being a naughty Herdman was so fun as a little girl.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is such a great story for the whole family. I absolutely loved reading it for the first time as an adult.
Memorable Quotes
“We figured they were headed straight for hell, by way of the state penitentiary…”
bisous und обьятий,
RaeAnna
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Title: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Author: Barbara Robinson
Publisher: Harper Trophy
Copyright: 1972
ISBN: 9780064402750
