The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson, 80 pages

"The Herdmans are absolutely the worst kids in the history of the world. They lie and steal and smoke cigars (even the girls). They talk dirty, hit little kids, cuss their teachers, set fire to Fred Shoemaker's old broken-down toolhouse, and take the name of the Lord in vain. Still, no one is prepared when the Herdmans invade church one Sunday - and decide to take over the annual Christmas pageant.

None of them has ever heard the Christmas story before. Their interpretation - the Wise Men are a bunch of dirty spies and Herod needs a good beating - has a lot of people up in arms. But the actual pageant is full of surprises for everyone, starting with the Herdmans themselves." -Back Cover

My girls loved this book. They couldn't believe how bad the Herdmans were. When we finished the book we watched the old movie starring Loretta Switt. It was cute and followed the book but didn't really do the book justice. When do the movies ever do the books justice? Still, it was nice for the girls to see what we had read and hopefully they understood what had happened by the end. The ham gets me every time.