Jingle Bells

"Jingle Bells"--this version of Jingle Bells--has a subtitle: "An Adaptation of the Traditional Song." You have been notified that this is not your open sleigh. Very well, let's begin. "Jenny and Joanna woke up early." Their Grandma is taking them on an airplane for a trip to New York. At the hotel they see a line of carriages and choose the "biggest and shiniest" as theirs (which is strange because the three of them completely fill the seat). The girls are about five and nine. Grandma is short and stout. As they drive through Central Park, the tinkling of the bells on the harness is the only sound. It is also snowing. Grandma says, "Let's sing!" They sing Jingle Bells. Because the driver is standing to sing, he is knocked out of the carriage by a tree limb. Grandma eventually works her way into the driver's seat and slows the galloping horses. Not knowing the path, Grandma drives them one way the wrong way into traffic. Still, she's a grandma and grandmas know just what to do. And she does, and the men help her, and they arrive back at the hotel. The artwork by Maryann Kovalski is perfect--vaguely impressionistic like a memory, full-paged, and colorful. "Jingle Bells" is such a fun, pleasant, endearing story about Christmas complete with New York and snow and a wild carriage ride. You can't beat that.