Buy or borrow this book! Support your local independent bookseller
Find it in a WorldCat library
Compare prices at major online bookstores
|
|
|
|
|
|
Santa seems to have even more problems in Wake Up, Santa Claus! (North-South Books, $15.95, ISBN 1558586059, ages 4-8) by Marcus Pfister. The Swiss artist also created the wildly popular Rainbow Fish; fans will enjoy the rainbow fish illustration hanging over Santa's bed. Poor Santa -- he oversleeps, misplaces his boot, and gets stuck in the snow, to name but a few of his woes. Not to worry, though: Pfister's books always leave readers smiling.
Nanny Fox and the Christmas Surprise is a barnyard tale of whimsy by Georgie Adams and illustrator Selina Young (Doubleday, $14.95, ISBN 038532281X, ages 3-8). Arnold Fox is the beloved nanny for a brood of chicks, but the rest of his sly family is up to no good. While Arnold entertains his charges by playing Three Little Pigs, his father and siblings disguise themselves as Santa and reindeer, and his mother readies a pot in hopes of making chicken soup. Arnold, of course, saves the day -- and the chicks.
Clement C. Moore's classic Christmas Eve poem has been retold in many versions; Melodye Rosales has written and illustrated a delightful African American version called 'Twas the Night B'fore Christmas (Scholastic, $12.95, ISBN 0590739441, all ages). Her artwork is magical, borrowing freely from styles others have used to portray Moore's original poem.
Her innovation is to portray a black family living on a North Carolina dairy farm around the turn of the century. The father describes St. Nick: "His cheeks puffed like bread puddin'/baked in a pot./Wit' his cotton-white hair/peekin' out from his cap,/An skin like molasses,/he looked jus' like my Pap!"
Her St. Nick has the last word, shouting, "Merry Christmas To All!/Y'all Sleep Tight!"
Charlie Brown and his Peanuts cohorts have also become a traditional part of the holidays, starting with the Halloween TV special about Linus's eternal watch for the great pumpkin.
Creator Charles Schulz gives kids a new hardcover Christmas gift with his Sally's Christmas Miracle (HarperCollins, $11.95, ISBN 0694008990, ages 3-6). "I'm going out to fall down a Christmas tree," Sally declares. When she claims one that does in a neighbor boy's yard, the stage is set for honest hostilities and simple forgiving on both sides.
Of course, Snoopy adds fun as tree decorator and sly commentator.
Alice Cary will celebrate the holidays with her family in Groton, Mass.
©1996, ProMotion, inc.