Watching her children play in the snow on Christmas Eve, a mother worries that they have no meat for tomorrow's dinner, and she sends her husband out to hunt. He returns with a little white goat that he has found caught in a thorn bush. Yielding to the children's pleas to keep the kid, the family happily eats beans for Christmas dinner. In later years, Pashmina the goat repays them with many little kids, whose soft wool they make into beautiful clothing. Translated from the German, the story reads aloud well. There's little conflict here, but many children will find plenty to enjoy in the snowy mountain scenes, the sympathetic little goat, and the tenderness of this simple family story. From the icy coolness of the winter scenes to the warm glow of small candles on the Christmas tree, the richly colored illustrations convey the moods of the season as well as the family's happiness in the years that follow.