

I grew up with, and quickly adopted, the notion that reading was the only way to fill up every scrap of loose time you could snatch. My mother, widowed when I was three years old, taught school for forty-nine years in that same small town, and her major (indeed, only) extravagance was books.

I grew up in a southern Ohio river town - Portsmouth - and that small town atmosphere has affected most of my writing. This year’s pageant is definitely like no other, but maybe that’s exactly what makes it so special. But Christmas magic is all around and the Herdmans, who have never heard the Christmas story before, start to reimagine it in their own way. And that’s just the start! When the Herdmans show up at church for the free snacks and suddenly take over the Christmas pageant, the other kids are shocked.

They set fire to Fred Shoemaker’s toolshed, blackmailed Wanda Pierce to get her charm bracelet, and smacked Alice Wendelken across the head. Ralph, Imogene, Leroy, Claude, Ollie, and Gladys Herdman are an awful bunch. Laughs abound in this bestselling Christmas classic by Barbara Robinson! The Best Christmas Pageant Ever follows the outrageous shenanigans of the Herdman siblings, or “the worst kids in the history of the world.” The siblings take over the annual Christmas pageant in a hilarious yet heartwarming tale involving the Three Wise Men, a ham, scared shepherds, and six rowdy kids.
