THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

Reid turns her Plasticine talents to an interpretation of the classic poem.

Taking her cue from “not even a mouse,” she focuses her visual narrative on a mouse family that inhabits a cozy, snow-covered log. Though the busyness of its inhabitants betrays that many creatures are actually stirring, readers are likely to forgive this artistic license. They will be too busy poring over the detail-filled spreads to carp. A harassed mouse parent has a swaddled babe under one arm and vainly tries to keep another from playing with the Christmas stockings with the other. Far from being “nestled / all snug in their beds,” these mouselings are raising a rumpus, climbing about on their bunk beds and tossing sugarplums at one another. Santa’s approach is spectacular, pairs of Plasticine reindeer increasing in size to accentuate perspective as they pull a tiny mouse Santa aloft while a fox looks up from below. The jovial Santa is appropriately round, though he has just a faint hint of white chin whiskers. Apparently oblivious to the onlooking mouse family, he stuffs the stockings before departing—as the mouse children scamper back into bed to avoid being caught out by mama and papa.

The lively mischief will carry children past the narrative inconsistencies in this fun-filled romp