Age 5-9

This stocking-sized Nativity story embellishes the traditional tale by being the narrative of an elderly shepherd who was a small boy at the time of Christ’s birth. He sits by a fire on a hillside in what must be about AD50 or AD60, recounting to his grandchildren the night the angels came and told him and his father, uncle and elder brothers the news of the Messiah. As the youngest, he was put in charge of the sheep while his relations went to Bethlehem to see the miraculous babe. Weeping like Cinderella at being left behind, the boy found himself accompanied by the Angel Gabriel, who, fairy-godmother style, whisked him through the air to the stable where he got to be the Saviour’s first visitor.

Morpurgo invests the story with an ordinary reality — particularly in his observation of the sheep and the newborn child, and his chatty, modern vernacular still imparts a sense of wonder. Similarly, Blake’s informal, sketchy illustrations suggest a shorthand version of the old masters, bringing humanity to the divine and conveying grandeur without grandiosity (Egmont £4.99).

ON ANGEL WINGS by Michael Morpurgo illustrated by Quentin Blake

Explore Books

• Book Extracts

• Book Reviews

• Books Group

• Audio Books

Times Recommends

• The 100 Best Books of the Decade
• The Times picks the 50 best paperbacks of 2009
• The conversation: James Ellroy