JUNIPER’S CHRISTMAS

When her loving mum, Jennifer, goes missing, 11-year-old Juniper calls on Santa Claus for help.

The strategy isn’t as unlikely as it might seem. Nicholas Claus is currently hiding out in a nearby London park, having left the North Pole workshop nearly a decade ago, after the death of the love of his life. He now helps homeless residents build better shelters but resolutely avoids all contact with children. A movie version of this story would practically make itself. Colfer weaves a love story with numerous characters, including a stray reindeer calf, a ruthless crook intent on getting her hands on Santa’s magical sack (much larger on the inside than the outside), a crew of elves out to find their boss and put him back in harness, and grinchy bureaucrats out to quash a holiday charity event. The story centers on the determined efforts of Colfer’s perceptive and big-hearted young protagonist to find the grumpy, grieving gift giver and extort his reluctant cooperation in her search. On the way to a thoroughly heartwarming ending, the author also supplies perfectly reasonable explanations for where Santa gets all those presents and why and how he delivers them in one night. In Prabhat’s rare but appropriately twinkly illustrations, Juniper—the brown-skinned child of a white mother and a kindly, deceased, much-missed father from Ghana—joins select cast members posing in festive, or at least cold-weather, garb.

A soaring flight fueled by joys, sorrows, and deeds both ill and good.