Martha, a pregnant Holstein cow, struggles through a nighttime blizzard searching for a protected site to give birth. “The snow hissed like sand across the frozen fields. It beat against Martha’s sides. It blew in squalls out of the darkened air.” A deserted and padlocked barn offers no refuge, and Martha plods onward until she reaches a small shed. Inside she finds warmth, hay, and two humans. Just like Martha, the human couple found shelter in the shed, and the young woman is also about to give birth. The familiar Nativity story and the addition of Martha’s journey are related in a lyrical text and masterful art. On each double-page spread, the parallel Nativity story unfolds with Martha’s tale is shown on the right-hand page in a luminous watercolor and pastel illustration, while the story of the human birth is depicted in a smaller sepia-toned vignette on the left-hand page. Fine writing and distinctive illustrations distinguish this new Christmas offering. (Ages 5–8)

Martha is only a cow, but even a cow needs a safe, warm place on such a cold, snowy night-especially when she is about to give birth. She finds a house, but it is deserted. She finds a barn, but it is locked. Meanwhile, in a parallel story depicted only through art spots, a man and a woman and a donkey make their way across these same wintry fields. At last, Martha follows a star in the east to a shed . . . but she is not alone there. The man and woman are sheltering there too, and in a wonderfully mysterious way, another baby is about to be born this winter's night. Leo and Diane Dillon's art blends warmly with John Herman's lyrical text as parallel journeys of two very special mothers merge in this soft, gentle tale about one miraculous night.