AUNTIE CLAUS AND THE KEY TO CHRISTMAS

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)