The Huron Carol’s English lyrics by Jesse Edgar Middleton are an early 20th-century adaptation of a Huron hymn written circa 1641 by Father Jean de Brébeuf, a Jesuit missionary who lived with the Wendat (Huron) nation in what is now Ontario. In addition to 13 double-page illustrations inspired by the carol’s four English verses, this book includes a page of historical background, the carol’s music, and one verse of lyrics in both Huron and French.

Ian Wallace, one of Canada’s most award-honoured children’s illustrators, portrays Christmas Eve in the chilly, moonlit blues, greens, and blacks characteristic of a December night near Ontario’s Georgian Bay. In sharp and sacred contrast, his longhouse (stable), within its palisade-enclosed community, is radiant with golden hues. Each watercolour painting appears as if brushed onto a skin stretched on a pole-framed drying rack.

Wallace’s depiction of Huron angel choirs recalls marble statuary. His hunters (shepherds), infant and parents, gift-bearing chiefs (kings), and other spectators wear skins, furs, and feathers. Birds and animals native to the place also bear witness to the miraculous birth during this “moon of wintertime when all the birds had fled.”

While interesting and appealing, this interpretation invites comparison with its 1990 predecessor, illustrated by Frances Tyrrell. Wallace’s version offers more panoramic scenes, soft-featured humans, and a menagerie of animals. Tyrrell’s birchbark-motifed offering has a more liturgical look, with more adult-looking humans, more information about her research, an additional verse in French, and endorsement from a Wendat grand chief.

While both editions of The Huron Carol are attractive, the lyrics of both are flawed. “Gitchi Manitou” is Ojibway, not Huron, and the religious and romanticized historical view of the native people as “children” is outdated and warrants explanation when presenting the book to young readers.