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Linas
Alsenas Mrs. Claus Takes a Vacation; illus.
by the author
32 pp. Scholastic 10/06 ISBN 0-439-77978-2
$16.99 g
(Primary)
Tired of being stuck at home all the time, Mrs. Claus sets
off in the sleigh on a solo trip around the world. She enjoys
the change of scene and has “no trouble making friends,”
but by the time she visits the Taj Mahal, Mrs. Claus misses
Santa. Her homesickness worsens as she starts seeing signs
of Christmas everywhere, and she knows it’s time to
head back. Meanwhile, Santa keeps himself busy, baking his
first batch of cookies and decorating the house for the holidays,
but he’s very happy to see his wife again. Alsenas’s
wry, folksy illustrations alternate between cozily framed
images of the domesticated Santa and full-bleed, double-page
spreads of Mrs. Claus following her bliss (on the beach and
at a sushi bar, for example). The story’s home-is-where-the-heart-is
sentiment will resonate with frequent fliers and armchair
travelers alike. K.F.
Maxie Baum I Have a Little Dreidel; illus. by Julie
Paschkis
32 pp. Cartwheel/Scholastic 10/06
ISBN 0-439-64997-8 $9.99
(Preschool)
In original verses that alternate with the song’s familiar
refrain (“Oh, dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, / I made it
out of clay . . . ”), this playful book describes a typical
Hanukkah celebration from a young girl’s point of view:
greeting relatives, enjoying a latke dinner, lighting the
menorah, spinning the dreidel. Although the text is often
saccharine (“We all go to the table / ‘Cause now
it’s time to eat / Our applesauce and latkes; / What
a yummy treat!”), Baum does give accurate information
about the holiday (Hanukkah is celebrated because of the Maccabees’
victory, not because of the miracle of the oil lasting for
eight days). Bordered in blue-and-white patterns, Paschkis’s
illustrations are warm and vibrant, depicting a crowded but
loving multigenerational household. The little girl, sporting
nearly horizontal braided pigtails and an ever-present smile,
is particularly appealing. A latke recipe, directions for
playing dreidel, and musical score are included. RACHEL L.
SMITH
David Bedford I’ve Seen Santa!; illus.
by Tim Warnes
32 pp. Tiger Tales 9/06 ISBN 1-58925-058-3
$15.95
(Preschool)
On Christmas Eve, Little Bear keeps thinking he sees Santa,
but each time it’s just Big Bear sampling some of the
treats they’ve left for Santa or Mommy Bear sneaking
presents into the stockings. The Bear family decides to sleep
by the tree so they can “all see Santa,” but while
they never spy him, the final spread assures us that “Santa
saw them,” the bears slumbering peacefully nearby while
Santa sits enjoying his refreshments. The story’s gentle
suspense — “Someone big was standing by the Christmas
tree. This time it had to be . . . ” (page turn) “Big
Bear again!” — is well matched by the soft illustrations
of the large, lumbering bears and their cozy cave. J.M.B.
Seymour Chwast The Miracle of Hanukkah; illus.
by the author
24 pp. Blue Apple 10/06 ISBN 1-59354-157-0
$14.95
(Primary)
Telling the story of the Maccabees’ revolt when the
Syrian king tried to force them to worship Zeus, Chwast uses
his clean, simple style to great effect. Employing a series
of nested flaps, each larger than the previous one, he tells
the story in easy-to-follow chunks. The temple stands steadfastly
in the background while the plot thickens, the flaps get larger,
and the central characters take up more space in the foreground.
As the battle ends, the flaps give way to two full-size spreads
showing the inside of the temple as the Maccabees celebrate
their victory. Chwast’s basic brown and blue outlines
reveal a subtle humor, while a wide-ranging palette of flat
colors harmoniously fills in the scenes. The endpapers show
Hanukkah’s ubiquitous dreidel, but Chwast’s straightforward
storytelling gets to the true heart of the holiday. LOLLY
ROBINSON
Cynthia Cotten This Is the Stable; illus.
by Delana Bettoli
32 pp. Holt 11/06 ISBN 0-8050-7556-9
$16.95
(Preschool)
Cotten’s rhyming couplets recount the Nativity story,
introducing “the stable, dusty and brown”; the
cow with its “swishing tail” and “gentle
moo”; Joseph, who’s “patient and wise”;
and so on — in quiet, cumulative verse that matches the
tender mood of Bettoli’s jewel-toned illustrations.
Glowing softly as if starlit, the paintings include details
that are the book’s real highlight. When we first see
the babe in his makeshift crib, all that’s visible are
his tiny feet and hands, poking out from the hay. Large wings
enfold a later scene in which Mary and Joseph “settle
the little one down.” In another tableau, Mary’s
head is framed by a round window, a whimsical allusion to
the haloes ubiquitous in icon paintings. The hushed tone of
both art and text make this an appropriate choice for lulling
toddlers to sleep on Christmas Eve. TANYA D. AUGER
Alexis Deacon While You Are Sleeping; illus.
by the author
32 pp. Farrar 9/06 ISBN 0-374-38330-8
$16.50
(Preschool)
“Do you ever stop to think what we go through, night
after night, to look after you?” With the tone of weary
parents, four bedside toys — a teddy bear, elephant, sock
monkey, and dog — explain how they watch over their girl;
the old-fashioned-looking illustrations in subdued colors
show the stuffed guardians recovering blankets, squishing
bedbugs, and scaring away bad dreams. When a round figure
in red leaves a stocking, the bedside toys, now with childlike
curiosity, abandon their usual chores to investigate the stocking’s
contents. Meanwhile, the art shows a new stuffed animal — a
tiny lion — proving his mettle as he helps look after
the sleeping girl. Getting a loving hug from the girl the
next morning, the lion is given his own Christmas gift — a
place as a bedside toy. BRIDGET T. MCCAFFREY
Tomie dePaola Christmas Remembered; illus.
by the author
88 pp. Putnam 9/06 ISBN 0-399-24622-3
$19.99
(Intermediate, Adult)
While adult fanciers of dePaola’s art are probably the
largest audience for this collection of the artist’s
reminiscences, young creative types also might see themselves
in these stories of an artist growing up. DePaola recollects
fifteen Christmases, from when he was three in Connecticut
and enraptured by the sudden appearance of a fireplace (artificial,
it turned out) in the family living room, to a recent celebration
in his New Hampshire farmhouse, where the visiting kids made
snow angels and the adults drank Stoli. In between come some
key moments in dePaola’s life — the Christmas he
received art supplies in abundance, the one he spent as a
novice monk — related with gentle detail and plenty of
personality. The illustrations employ a variety of techniques
and media, ranging from a festive collage of tinsel and lights
to a portrait of a formidable Nana Fall-River. R.S.
Norma Farber How the Hibernators Came to Bethlehem;
illus. by Barbara Cooney
32 pp. Walker 10/06 ISBN 0-8027-9610-9
$9.95
(Preschool)
“Once upon a winter’s night two thousand years
ago, / a star shone . . .” In this reissue
of a long-unavailable holiday picture book (adapted from a
poem that originally appeared in the December 1966 Horn
Book), the star awakens the “winter-sleeping”
creatures — bear, badger, raccoon, skunk, bat —
and sings them all the way to Bethlehem, where they find a
newborn baby in a manger. Paul Heins, in his December 1980
Horn Book review, notes the “simple, unabashed
realism” of Cooney’s art, which, along with Farber’s
respectful text, celebrates the hibernators “as part
of a divine plan.” M.V.P.
Susan Fletcher Alphabet of Dreams
294 pp. Seo/Atheneum 9/06 ISBN 0-689-85042-5
$16.95
(Intermediate, Middle School)
A fourteen-year-old thief, Mitra, and her little brother Babak
join the magus Melchior’s caravan after Babak starts
to prophesy through dreams, prompting Melchior and two other
magi to set out for Bethlehem, where a child has been born
in a stable. Author Fletcher prevents that monumental occurrence
from overbalancing the narrative by keeping the scale human,
cleaving solely to Mitra’s point of view. Mitra’s
involvement in the event at Bethlehem turns personal only
during Herod’s massacre of the innocents, when Babak’s
dreams and Mitra’s own troubled conscience compel her
to take action. Written in a natural first-person voice with
loving attention to the sounds, smells, and tastes of the
Middle East, this well-shaped historical novel brings a new
perspective to an ancient story. ANITA L. BURKAM
Rumer Godden The Story of Holly & Ivy;
illus. by Barbara Cooney
32 pp. Viking 9/06 ISBN 0-670-06219-7
$17.99
(Younger, Intermediate)
In the city, all the orphans have been sent to spend Christmas
with generous families — all except Ivy, who must travel
to an “infants’ home” instead. Rejecting
this arrangement, Ivy gets off the train in the nostalgic
country town of Appleton, where a Christmas doll named Holly
hopes for a little girl to claim her, and a lonely couple
longs for a child. Persevering through a cold but moonlit
Christmas Eve, all four — Holly, Ivy, and Mr. and Mrs.
Jones — are united for a joyous morning. Godden’s
luminous tale of Christmas magic (first published in Ladies’
Home Journal in 1957 and now reissued with Cooney’s
paintings for the 1985 edition) deserves its classic status.
Texturally rich and evocatively wintry, it is timeless: “a
story about wishing” not for trucks or dolls but for
home and family, and a story about the universal gifts of
warmth and love we all have to offer. Read this one with the
whole family. CLAIRE E. GROSS
David A. Johnson Snow Sounds: An Onomatopoeic Story;
illus. by the author
32 pp. Houghton 9/06 ISBN 0-618-47310-6
$16.00 g
(Primary)
A boy wakes up on the last day of school before Christmas
break and hears a snow plow coming down the country road:
“Crash / Crush / Clank.” With a spare text consisting
almost entirely of onomatopoeic words, Johnson has created
an aural portrait of a snowy day — the perfect companion
to Lynne Rae Perkins’s Snow Music. His sandy-textured
full-spread paintings use thin draftsman-careful lines and
broad sweeps of subtly shaded color that move from sleepy
grays and blues to warmer pastels as the sun rises. Using
a variety of sizes, colors, typefaces, and curves, each word
is carefully nestled into the art. After breakfast (“Glug
/ Glug / Crackle”), the boy shovels the steps (“Scoop
/ Scrape”) just in time for the school bus’s arrival
(“HONK HONK”). LOLLY ROBINSON
Nathaniel Marumas Manga Claus: The Blade of Kringle;
illus. by Erik Craddock
80 pp. Razorbill/Penguin 9/06 ISBN
1-59514-134-0 $12.99
(Primary, Intermediate)
A raucous graphic novel variation on the “save Christmas”
theme. When a disaffected elf brings an army of deranged ninja
teddy bears to life the night before Christmas Eve, only Santa’s
samurai skills can save the North Pole and deliver Christmas
joy to the children of the world. The art is not done in the
traditional manga style, as the title may suggest, but is
instead less stylized and more distinctly American, making
it accessible to graphic novel novices. With its action-packed
pages and references to pop culture and kung-fu films, Manga
Claus is a quick, entertaining diversion. ALISON A. AMATO
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