ON CHRISTMAS EVE

Christmas stories tend to be sentimental, and this one is no exception. Martin trims her “I-believe-in- Santa” tale with garlands of an unselfish wish, a friend’s ill father and faith in the season. Third-grader Tess is convinced that this year (1938) she will meet the real Santa and experience “the Christmas magic.” Instead of leaving him cookies, she buys him a gift of a snow globe and wishes that her best-friend Sarah’s father could be home from the hospital for the holiday. Nostalgic and tender, by next Christmas Tess has come to realize that some gifts are not exactly the ones you ask for. This old-fashioned, Norman Rockwell image of a family Christmas reflects the time period, but who is the audience? Will today’s eight- and nine-year-olds accept Tess’s belief in Santa? The title, the appealing cover of the snow globe and Martin’s name will sell this sentimental sleigh ride—most likely to grandparents. (Fiction. 8-10)