ROLY POLY LOOKS FOR SANTA CLAUS

Another board book designed to prime toddlers for Santa's annual appearance.

Roly Poly, a white bear clad in a holiday sweater, is looking for Santa, in the yard, in the house, and in the kitchen. In the process, he finds his animal friends getting ready for the holiday. In a nod to many families’ reality, the presents are already under the tree when Roly Poly's parents send him off to bed; Santa delivers only the filled Christmas stocking. Each of the four large, semicircular tabs protruding from the side and top of the book does double duty. For example, Deer is on one side of the second tab, which, when pulled, reveals Fox in a die-cut window; when the page is turned, the same tab shows Giraffe, and Cat appears when the tab is slid. The illustrations, cheery, digitally created cartoons, have no relation to real life. Why would a dog and a mouse be baking cookies together? But that won't matter to toddlers, who want to tug on the pages of any book. The half-circle tabs will stand up to their rough handling. The die-cut openings are almost flush to the page surface, so toddler fingers won't be able to tear them.

Not a timeless classic but a sturdy introduction to the holiday fun.