‘The Best Christmas Pageant Ever’ Review: Town Terrors Get Tamed in a Fresh Take on the Kid-Lit Classic

Initially a magazine short story, then expanded to novel form in 1972, Barbara Robinson’s “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” has remained a holiday staple ever since. Its enjoyable central conceit of Roald Dahl-style comedic nastiness — the first sentence pegs principal figures as “absolutely the worst kids in the history of the world” — no […]