The inimitable Auntie Claus is back for another Kringle family lesson in the true meaning of Christmas in this successful sequel (Auntie Claus, 1999). This time Auntie Claus’s young nephew, Christopher, decides that he actually wants to be on the B-B-and-G list (that’s the bad boys and girls who won’t be getting any presents). Not only does Chris not believe that Auntie Claus is Santa’s older sister, he also is beginning to have doubts about Christmas altogether. Chris takes his own trip, with the help of Auntie Claus’s diamond key, on the mysterious glass elevator that shoots him straight to Santa’s magical kingdom. There Chris learns that he does indeed believe in Christmas, and that the key to believing is just as Auntie Claus said, “All the best things are invisible. . . . Sometimes you have to believe in order to see.” Primavera’s stylish illustrations in jewel tones are darkly lit with just the right sense of mysterious danger and theatrical suspense for this dramatic tale. Several illustrations recall the movie version of The Wizard of Oz : the tall-hatted guard at the enormous door who turns away the outsider on a quest, the army of strange henchmen, the huge disembodied head who rules a group of followers based on their misbeliefs, and a magical snow globe with Chris inside. In fact, the things that Chris learns at the North Pole—believing in yourself, appreciating your family, and the power of the invisible—are the same lessons Dorothy learned in Oz. “There’s no place like home,” and for anyone named Kringle, there’s no place quite like the North Pole. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-15-202441-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Silver Whistle/Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2002
A touching, beautifully illustrated story of greatest interest to those in the New York City area.
A pair of cardinals is separated and then reunited when their tree home is moved to New York City to serve as the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.
The male cardinal, Red, and his female partner, Lulu, enjoy their home in a huge evergreen tree located in the front yard of a small house in a pleasant neighborhood. When the tree is cut down and hauled away on a truck, Lulu is still inside the tree. Red follows the truck into the city but loses sight of it and gets lost. The birds are reunited when Red finds the tree transformed with colored lights and serving as the Christmas tree in a complex of city buildings. When the tree is removed after Christmas, the birds find a new home in a nearby park. Each following Christmas, the pair visit the new tree erected in the same location. Attractive illustrations effectively handle some difficult challenges of dimension and perspective and create a glowing, magical atmosphere for the snowy Christmas trees. The original owners of the tree are a multiracial family with two children; the father is African-American and the mother is white. The family is in the background in the early pages, reappearing again skating on the rink at Rockefeller Center with their tree in the background.
A touching, beautifully illustrated story of greatest interest to those in the New York City area. (author’s note) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7733-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
A good-enough introduction to a contested festivity but one that’s not in step with the community it’s for.
An overview of the modern African-American holiday.
This book arrives at a time when black people in the United States have had intraracial—some serious, some snarky—conversations about Kwanzaa’s relevance nowadays, from its patchwork inspiration that flattens the cultural diversity of the African continent to a single festive story to, relatedly, the earnest blacker-than-thou pretentiousness surrounding it. Both the author and consultant Keith A. Mayes take great pains—and in painfully simplistic language—to provide a context that attempts to refute the internal arguments as much as it informs its intended audience. In fact, Mayes says in the endnotes that young people are Kwanzaa’s “largest audience and most important constituents” and further extends an invitation to all races and ages to join the winter celebration. However, his “young people represent the future” counterpoint—and the book itself—really responds to an echo of an argument, as black communities have moved the conversation out to listen to African communities who critique the holiday’s loose “African-ness” and deep American-ness and moved on to commemorate holidays that have a more historical base in black people’s experiences in the United States, such as Juneteenth. In this context, the explications of Kwanzaa’s principles and symbols and the smattering of accompanying activities feel out of touch.
A good-enough introduction to a contested festivity but one that’s not in step with the community it’s for. (resources, bibliography, glossary, afterword) (Nonfiction. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4263-2849-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: National Geographic Kids
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2017
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