It is seven-year-old approved. It is so fun to read out loud and to giggle together at the antics of the Herman herd. (And so much better than reading Capatain Underpants again). The Herdman kids are known in their town for being bullies and agents of chaos. One Sunday the five siblings show up at church because they've been told that there'll be cake. Much to everyone's dismay they also all volunteer to be in the Christmas pageant. There's only one problem: they've never even heard the Christmas story. This fish-out-of-water situation leads to comedy and also to some eye-opening insight into a familiar Biblical story.
There is so much to love about this book. Above all, I love that it's so silly but still takes its characters and the story seriously. Orie keeps talking about how Imogene thinks Bill would have been a much better name than Jesus for Mary's baby.
I love both the questions and the pronouncements made by the Herdmans as they discover the Christmas story for the first time. They "wanted a bloody end to Herod, worried about Mary giving birth in a barn and called the wise men were a bunch of dirty spies."
I love all the characters, even prissy Alice Wendelken, who thinks she should have gotten the part of Mary but is too scared of Imogene to put up her hand, so instead she's taking notes of all the sins the Hermans are committing so she can tattle.
I love the way the haters are put in their place. The mom who's making the best of being stuck with leading the pageant shows up the stuck-up church ladies who think the Hermans will ruin everything. She determines that this pageant whiche everyone thinks will fail will be the best Christmas Pageant ever. And it is!
There are only a couple of asterisks I would put on my very hearty recommendation. I skipped over a couple of fat-phobic paragraphs of bullying by the Herdmans in the first chapter. And I was annoyed at the multiple mentions of a dad who's resigned to the fact that dinner's never ready for him because the mom is spending so much time working on the pageant. I mean, maybe you could make her dinner, buddy. She's got a lot on her plate. If they ever do an updated edition, these would be super things to fix.
For me, those small details aren't worth leaving the book on the shelf. I hope you read it and tell me what you love about it. And I hope you come to church on the 18th to see our own kids and families in our non-traditional but still great Christmas Pageant.
