Latest kids’ holiday book releases make great bedtime tales / LJWorld.com

Archive for Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Leanne Italie - The Associated Press

December 2, 2008

There are piles of new, pleasing picture books for Christmas and Hanukkah. Here are a some of the highlights.

A peg-legged pirate St. Nick with a sleigh pulled by sea horses and a big-headed flying caribou who’s fed up with the cult of Rudolph provide fresh spin for the holidays on a beloved Christmas poem for kids.

There are piles of new, pleasing picture books for Christmas and Hanukkah. Here are a some of the highlights.

• “Night Before Christmas” ($17.99, ages 4-8, Putnam), written and illustrated by Jan Brett.

This is the 10th anniversary hardcover of Brett’s magical vision that honors the Victorian feel of the poem with Stockbridge, Mass., as the setting. She includes lively margin art that’s a story onto itself, lots of animals and a twist all her own: a couple of stowaway elves.

• “Alaskan Night Before Christmas” ($15.95, ages 4-8, Pelican) by Tricia Brown and illustrated by Alan Stacy.

The head of Santa’s team is a self-centered caribou named “Kotz,” short for the Alaskan town Kotzebue. With a flashy smile, he hogs the media spotlight and dreams of stardom a la Rudolph, but he ends up down and out in Anchorage instead.

• “A Flake Like Mike” (HarperCollins, $16.99, ages 3-8, for sale exclusively at Saks Fifth Avenue stores and Saks.com) by Mike Reiss and illustrated by Chris Capuozzo.

A curlecue snowflake named Mike is shunned by the mass of lookalike flakes, but he leads a bloodless revolution against comformity with a smile on his face. The story and art with bohemian flair are the inspiration for the Saks holiday windows at the flagship store in New York. A portion of proceeds will go to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

• “All I Want for Christmas” (Blue Apple Books, $9.95, ages 4-8), written and illustrated by Deborah Zemke.

What does a starfish want for Christmas? Two and a half pairs of mittens, of course. How about a skunk, a woodpecker or a porcupine? This quick little animal book might appeal more to toddlers.

• “Priscilla and the Great Santa Search” (Little, Brown and Co., $16.99, ages 4-8) by Nathaniel Hobbie and illustrated by Jocelyn Hobbie.

The fourth in the Hobbie sibs’ series starring the pink-loving Priscilla. This time, she and gal pal Bettina head north in search of the real Santa after spotting a couple of bad mall impostors.

• “What Dogs Want for Christmas” (Sleeping Bear Press, $16.95, all ages), written and illustrated by Kandy Radzinski.

Nipping at the heels of last year’s “What Cats Want for Christmas,” Radzinksi offers equal time to the bow-wows, including Watson the Scottie as he appeals to Santa: “I’d love some mittens made of Persian kittens.”

• “I See Santa Everywhere” (Hyperion, $12.99, ages 4-7), written and illustrated by Glenn McCoy.

The book opens with a boggle-eyed boy sitting in his therapist’s office beneath busts of Freud and Dr. Phil, unloading his holiday angst over seeing seedy Santas lurking everywhere. There he is as plumber under the sink, Christmas tree boxers on display. And again as tattoo parlor customer, burger hut window worker and store greeter. Paranoia?

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2 December 2008
at 1:17 p.m.

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Ami (Anonymous) says…

While the picture show Christmas and Hannukah books, your recommendation refer only to Christmas. There are at least 5 additional holidays celebrated at the same time by other religions. Reference to that could have been appropriate
24 December 2008
at 10:52 a.m.

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Confrontation (Anonymous) says…

I think they should reference books for scientologists, as well as Spaghetti-monsterites, Heaven's Gaters, Jehovah's Witnesses, and every other possible “religion” out there. Come on Associated Press!