Jingle Bells, retold by Kathleen Daly, illustrated by J.P. Miller.  Golden Books, Racine WI 1964.

Oh, dashing through the snow and so on, with Papa Bear and family, you never know what might happen.  For example all your animal friends might hop on for a ride, including Miss Esmerelda Ostrich (she really can’t sing, you know) .  And look up ahead, isn’t that??  It IS, it’s Santa, stranded in the woods!  Don’t you think we’d better help him out, Jingle Bells?  What fun it is!

The creative team of Kathleen Daly and J.P. Miller inject mid-century panache into a snappy re-imagining of Jingle Bells.  Filled with telling details, luminous color and rollicking visual rhythm,  J.P. Miller’s illustrations stand shoulder to shoulder with Richard Scarry’s, and even Charley Harper’s (yeah, I said it).  Miller and Scarry were friends, and it is easy to see how they must have influenced each others’ style.  Kathleen Daly was a member of  Golden Books‘ in house staff of talented creatives whose collaboration fueled one of the most prolific and enduring enterprises in the history of juvenile literature.

Wouldn’t you like your very own Jingle Bells, to sing and read to a little someone  – or to share with a larger someone who likes charming, nostalgic things?  You would?  Well, it so happens I have a copy to spare!  So if you will be the first person to leave a comment, I will send you one, and it will be my pleasure, treasure!