The Mice Before Christmas by Anne L Watson, Wendy Edelson

Rating: WORTHY!

From an advance review copy for which I thank the publisher.

I fell in love with this book just from the title, so in a way, I was dreading reading it because I feared it wouldn't live up to the amusement I'd had from title. I'm happy to report the book very much lived up to its name.

I have to add that recently I discovered there are other such books with the same title, but this was the first (and only) one of these I'd seen and read, so I cannot comment on the others. I can say that I was pleased to see artist Wendy Edelson given due credit on the cover instead of being some sort of a footnote tucked down at the bottom as illustrators are all-too-often relegated in children's books, like a few sentences takes more work than pages of quality, detailed artwork! I was very pleased that didn't happen here.

The illustrations are rich, and detailed and colorful, with a delightfully Christmas-y tone to the coloring and style. The writing is far more than a few sentences in this case, and is wonderfully poetic and sweet. The whole story about a mouse Christmas is charming. The mice have no less of a festival at Christmastide than do humans. Not a lot of people know that! They deck the halls, and anything else they can get away with (they're mice after all - and thereby hangs a tail!), and they dress in finery and celebrate at eight sharp, handing out gifts, enjoying good company and good food, and finally making sense of that second line in the poem, "A Visit from St Nicholas"!

I commend this as a worthy read and perhaps the start of a new Christmas tradition, replacing the other poem - which is, lets face it, of dubious provenance!

Elves on the Fifth Floor by Francesca Cavallo, Verena Wugeditsch

Rating: WORTHY!

From an advance review copy for which I thank the publisher.

It's a little early for a Christmas story, but I liked everything about this short picture novel from the intriguing title to the entertaining and cute tale, to the playful text by Cavallo, and the charming illustrations by Wugeditsch. It was original, quirky in a good way, and amusing. The only problem with the ebook was that Amazon did its usual job of mangling of the format in the Kindle edition - turning it into the kindling it's well known for in my experience. This is one of many reasons why I will have nothing to do with Amazon. For example, the page numbers appeared in the midst of the story including on one amusing occasion where I read the following:

The young man had pulled out his cell phone and was dialing a number.
74
Who...

It made it look like the number he was dialing was 74! The Net Galley viewer presented it much better and was beautifully laid out, but it was in double page format that doesn't work on my phone, which is where I typically read my books. I don't know if this is going to be available in a Kindle edition, but if it is, I recommend strongly against buying that version. The lines were chopped unequally, so some parts of the text would cover the left half of the screen whereas other lines would go the full width of the screen. Drop caps do not work and were messed up. Pictures and text were poorly adjoined. The formatting was, as usual in Kindle when it's anything other than plain vanilla text, messed up to put it politely.

I couldn't read the Net Galley version on my iPad since Net Galley snottily refuses to make its app compatible with older devices, but I was able to try it on Blue Fire Reader and in Adobe Digital Editions, and it was perfectly fine in both of those. So there, Net Galley! Take that! LOL!

The story was wonderful. It was a family of two parents and three kids, who were moving to a new town because of the resentment about their family and marital choices in the place they used to live (which I'd hazard a guess was Texas, especially the way things are going down here lately). They have a small apartment on the fifth floor and make the most of it. One parent, Isabella heads out the next day to begin her new job as a mail carrier at the town's post office. The other, Dominique, stays home with the kids.

When the kids write a letter to Santa about changing plans for a Christmas present, they wonder if it will get there in time, so they're surprised to get a speedy reply in the form of a magical letter from Santa himself! It enquires if it might be possible for some elves work from their home on Christmas Eve, in order to make sure all the presents get distributed in time. Naturally they accept, and this is how elves come to be on the fifth floor, but in a place like this where adults are not known to be overly friendly, the arrival of new people, and the activities on the fifth floor become problematical!

However it all works out in the end. That's not a spoiler! You knew it would! I liked this for its off-kilter take on the world, and for its enthusiastic story-telling and I commend it fully as a worthy read.

Goodnight, Santa by Dawn Sirette, Kitty Glavin

Rating: WORTHY!

For my very last children's christmas book review of 2020, I can't think of a better one than this one. This sports a light-up Moon - which isn't as impressive as it sounds, but is activated by a hidden pressure button on the cover. It also has a battery accessible (and turn-off-able!) module at the back, so there won't be a time when it runs down and becomes useless.

What I loved about this book, and what put it over the top as the best one I've seen this year, was the silhouette illustrations by Glavin, which are beautifully done; the book is worth getting just for those alone. The girl and her plush toy want to say goodnight to Santa, and end up taking a rather magical and Moonlit stroll through the winter landscape saying goodnight to everyone but. It's a fun and inventive book and I enjoyed it.

Merry Christmas, Mouse by Laura Numeroff, Felicia Bond

Rating: WORTHY!

Mice are always a lot more enjoyable in books than in real life aren't they? The mouse here is called Mouse and previously appeared in If You Give a Mouse a Cookie which sounds like fun just from the title. Mouse is intent upon decorating the tree and enjoys counting as he does it, so this Christmas story educates as well as entertains. And it's cute! It's a colorful pasteboard book written by Numeroff (she does the counting, get it?!) and illustrated by Bond, Felicia Bond.

Here Comes Santacorn by By Danielle McLean, Prisca Le Tandé

Rating: WORTHY!

This is another pasteboard book with glitter on the pages no less, and in it, the reindeer have colds and are unable to pull the sleigh. Fortunately, there's the Yulicorn who sports a candy cane striped horn, and who can help. The Yulicorn can pull Santa's sleigh by herself, as the rhyming text by McLean explains and the sweet illustrations by Le Tandé nicely demonstrate. A fun Christmas fantasy.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: A Christmas Activity Book

Rating: WORTHY!

No one gets credit for putting this together which is why I tend not to review books of this nature, but it's Christmas, so here goes, this once! This is exactly what it says. Most of the sixty-some pages are coloring pages, but others are word searches, or puzzles or of the word-scramble and 'find your way home' sort, and it includes everything from the old Christmas animated cartoon: the North Pole (which in reality is melting fast, so get it while it lasts!), the Island of Misfit Toys, and the Bumble, as well as Rudolf and Santa, and the misfit elf. And it comes complete with five colored pencils sporting pencil toppers of the main characters. This will keep your kids occupied while you get at the egg nog and the Christmas movie! Or even take that nap!

Merry Christmas, Baby by Dubravka Kolanovic

Rating: WORTHY!

Part of a " Welcome, Baby" series, this one is another colorful pasteboard book about Christmas for young 'uns. There's a shrinking concentric set of holes through the cover and the first few pages, colored in green and red, and inviting inquisitive chubby fingers to poke around and explore. The book is essentially a series of cute animal images with minimal text. It's a great way to introduce a growing and curious infant to Christmas traditions, if that's where your culture leans. Even if it isn't, it never hurts to educate a kid about traditions celebrated by others, which was the aim of my own The Very Christmassy Rattuses book for young children. We seriously need some inclusivity right now.

The Snowiest Christmas Ever by Jane Chapman

Rating: WORTHY!

This is a sweet and nicely-illustrated color pasteboard book about a family of bears, the children of which wish for snow, and that old adage about 'be careful what you wish for' comes into full fruition as the house is almost literally inundated with snow. It comes in the windows, through the door, and down the chimney, but in the end, the family manages to cope and enjoys some play and some sledding. It's a cute and fun story for young kids who like snow or who might never even have seen snow but would like an idea of what it's all about. Of course these books never tell you about the downside: how cold and dangerous it can be, but that has no need to be a part of this story!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar's Snowy Hide and Seek by Eric Carle

Rating: WORTHY!

The phenomenally successful Hungry Caterpillar is back in this winter adventure. How this works exactly given that the caterpillar became a butterfly half a century ago is a bit of a mystery, but I'm not going to rate this book negatively just because of that! LOL! Described as a 'A Finger Trail Lift-the-Flap Book' this colorful hardback tells a story of searching and finding, and encourages the young reader to open flaps and follow finger trials, so it's a very tactile work, perfect for curious youngsters. The caterpillar gets to meet penguins and polar bears, reindeer and Santa Claus, and generally has a fun time as will, I'm sure, your toddler. I commend this one as a worthy read.

Little Blue Truck's Christmas by Alice Shertle, Jill McElmurry

Rating: WORTHY!

Written by Shertle, illustrated by McElmurry, this is another colorful hardback for young children, about the little blue pickup truck who must deliver five Christmas trees, although it seems less like a delivery as such than it does the truck hustling these trees to whomever it could find to buy them! But it finds a buyer for each and every tree, especially the last one which looked like maybe it wouldn't have a home for the holidays! A fun Christmassy sort of a story, which I commend.

How to Catch a Reindeer by Alice Walstead, Andy Elkerton, Adam Wallace

Rating: WORTHY!

So, it's the most reviewing time of the year - for some more children's books for Christmas, that is! This hardcover picture book for kids was beautifully colored, well-illustrated, and amusingly-written in rhyme. I've never bought into the 'A Visit From Saint Nicholas' reindeer-naming scheme, but this book does. It's about a reindeer trying to catch-up to Santa's sleigh, and about people who for reasons I was unclear about, are trying to catch the reindeer. They don't succeed, but the reindeer does, as we know she would all along.

Some people might take issue with a female reindeer with antlers, but believe it or not, female reindeer - aka caribou - do grow antlers. They're the only species of deer where females do. Why? You'll have to ask them. So reindeer are a good emblem for equality of the sexes! At least in that regard. They shed their antlers, which are bone, not horn, after the males do, so if you see an antlered reindeer in the spring, it's a female, not a male. Very confusing, huh?

But I digress. I commend this book as an amusing and colorful read.

Little Red Sleigh by Erin Guendelsberger, Elizaveta Tretyakova

Rating: WORTHY!

This was a sweet book written by Guendelsberger and finely-illustrated by Tretyakova which relates the charming story of the little red sleigh who sets out to find fulfilment in life. It was really well put-together, and I appreciated that nothing was done to try and anthropomorphize the sleigh: it was always a sleigh and always looked like one. It never pretended to be anything different, but still it had a personality which came through to the reader.

I guess if you wanted to be perverse, you could argue that maybe it would have been a better story if the sleigh had been represented as trying to better itself, but that fact is that it was doing exactly that, even as it remained true to its purpose and I liked that. It wanted to be the best it could be at what it was, and that's inspiration enough. I commend this as a worthy read.

Santa.Com by Russell Hicks, Matt Cubberley, Ryley Garcia

Rating: WARTY!

This was an overwrought story about corporate take-over, and modernization, and mechanization, and the heroic elf who rescues Christmas despite his being held as a slavish toymaker! Usually I might get with a story like this, but this one didn't move me at all. To me it was so overdone and confused that I just could not get with it. I can't commend it.

Pete the Cat's 12 Groovy Days of Christmas by Kimberley Dean, James Dean

Rating: WORTHY!

Here's a fun Christmas book (again, it ain't cheap, but it is a hardback) that takes a new riff off the 12 days song, including fuzzy gloves, guitars strumming, and ugly sweaters. It does mention cupcakes which once in a while are fun, but you wouldn't want to eat them every day for twelve days if you know what's good for you! That aside, the book is amusing and well-illustrated, and makes for a worthy read.

The Night Before Christmas by Major Henry Livingston Jr, or Clement C Moore

Rating: WARTY!

Having said that in my previous review, if you're a die-hard traditionalist (see what I did there - got a non-Christmassy Christmas movie mention in my review?!), you can always go get that abominable poem here (for a price - all these Christmas books seen to be expensive hardbacks), and suffer through it with your family. This one ain't bad - it has the poem, and decent illustrations, but it shows santa smoking a pipe, and I wouldn't buy it, nor would I recommend it because the title isn't even the title of the poem! It's actually called: A Visit from St. Nicholas

Dasher by Matt Tavares

Rating: WORTHY!

So it's time for the grouch to review a few Christmas books even though it's not even Thanksgiving as of this post. I'm not a big fan of Christmas, in particular the crass commercialism that starts in friggin' September for goodness sake. For me, Christmas has typically been the chance to celebrate the winter solstice and see some good movies on TV, so if you set me up with a drink, some decent food and a couple of decent movies and then go off and play all the games you want, and try on all the sweaters and pajamas, and slippers you desire, and I won't care! I'll be happy!

You know, I've never bought into those dumb reindeer names that everyone but me seems to have inexplicably embraced, because I never grew up with that abominable poem in my head. I have two problems with it and one is the sheer sexism in the explicit claim that only male reindeer can pull the sleigh. And for that matter, even the rather racist stance that only reindeer can pull the sleigh. One thing I agree on with this author though, is that I always did feel that Rudolf got way more credit than he deserved for the gig, so I applaud Matt Tavares in bringing Dasher (or whatever his real name was) to the fore in this story, which is well-illustrated, nicely-written and tells and decent story.

I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas by Lewis Black

Rating: WARTY!

This was a comedian's take on Christmas and it was therefore supposed to be funny, but it was entirely the opposite: tedious, obvious, and not remotely funny. I skipped the middle completely and listened to a bit on the end while I was on the way back to the library to drop it off, and the guy seems to have majored in name-dropping in comedy school, because he was talking about a USO tour and he made no attempt at humor. All he did was drop names, so I dropped him - back into the library return box.

I love my library, but it recently lost yet another audiobook I dropped off in the box. As with the previous three occasions, I was the one who found it - for the fourth time on the library shelf, evidently put back there without being checked back in. Now I wish it had been this one they lost. I would not have gone looking for it!

Northstars Volume 1: Welcome to Snowville! by Jim Shelley, Haigen Shelley

Rating: WORTHY!

This is from an advance review copy for which I thank the publisher.

This was a great comic with a great title. In Snowville, Santa's daughter Holly (not much of a stretch there!) thinks she's getting a babysitting job when she's put in charge of the daughter of the visiting Yeti King. She doesn't know she's about to set out on an adventure which will uncover a conspiracy at the North Pole!

She quickly learns that Frostina is a girl very much her own age if a little taller (she's a yeti after all, although she doesn't look much like the traditional yeti is supposed to), and very soon the two are involved in an adventure. This was, to me, described a little confusingly in the blurb as being a trip to "the subterranean city of Undertown to investigate trouble in Troggie Town." I didn't quite get what that meant. Is Troggie Town part of the City of Undertown, maybe a suburb or an Ethnic neighborhood? Or is Undertown misrepresented and is a region rather than a city or a town - a region in which lies Troggie Town? It's no big deal, but it felt a bit confusing, especially since it doesn't look subterranean at all, being awash in snow, trees, and lots of bright light!

Anyway, while down there they encounter some weird and wonderful creatures and strange opponents, but the two feisty girls win through and save Christmas, and isn't that what's needed more than anything - saving Christmas from any selfish interests which would ruin it? We can all fight that battle!

I really enjoyed this story and thought it was well-written, beautifully drawn and colored, and told a worthy tale of Christmas fun and adventure.

Miss Kane's Christmas by Caroline Mickelson

Rating: WORTHY!

Closing out the year on a nice positive note, This is a typical Christmas "need to change your outlook" kind of a story as exemplified in books such as A Christmas Carol, and in movies such as It's a Wonderful Life which I took delight in parodying last year, and Miracle on 34th Street, of which I think the original was better than the remake. It involves a couple falling in love in only two or three days, and a very pushy woman winning over a determinedly anti-Christmas single dad. So why did I like this one, and reject the other one I'm reviewing today? It's a matter of perspective. The other one put a completely unrealistic plot into a real life situation, and this one put a perfectly plausible plot (in the story context) into a fantasy. The latter works. The former never will unless you're writing an absurdist comedy and not a romance.

It's the very fact that this is a ridiculous fantasy that means you don't take it too seriously, which is why I don't get some of the negative comments I've read about this. It's like complaining that Cinderella would have been far too uncomfortable in glass slippers (when they were, in the original story, fur anyway!), or that wolves can't even talk, much less huff and puff, and blow down a house. You can't judge it seriously, and like a children's story, you need to accept it within its own frame of reference, not in some adult reality frame of your own invention. It feels rather like these critics are trying to argue that you can't change a young suicidal person's mind, so leave 'em alone and let 'em get on with it!

No, you don't let an otherwise perfectly healthy young suicidal person get on with it even if they really want to, and in a world where Santa is not only real, but has a family, you can't let a guy rob his kids of the fun of Christmas. You have to hold an intervention! This is why I can like this story and reject the other one, because within its fantasy world, this story was plausible and fun. Yes, Santa's daughter was pushy, but she didn't want to be there in the first place, and was focused solely on getting this task done and moving on. She never expected to be won over by this single dad's love for his kids or his level of patience with her. It wasn't great literature. It wasn't authentic reality. It was a fairy tale, and it was cute and fun and funny, and I liked it. That's all there is to it.

A Yorkshire Christmas by Kate Hewitt

Rating: WARTY!

I'm a bit late with these last two, but what the Noël! I think yule find the reviews worth reading as long as I don't carol on about them....

Since both of my parents hail from Yorkshire, I thought this might be an interesting read. In fact, it simply wasn't. Even though the story was short I didn't read it all, so I can't comment on the last half of it, but the first half could have been set literally anywhere it snows, from Yorkshire to Yakutsk, from Canada to Chile, and it wouldn't have made any difference, so why 'Yorkshire'? I don't know!

Sometimes when people are obsessed with writing a series, even a loosely packed one like this, they become so enamored of their "brilliance" in picking the catchy titles that they're blinded to the fact that they have to write a story which fits the title, and it has to be a good and realistic one if you want me to read it.

Even if that hadn't been a curious factor in this novel, the story itself was so predictable and ploddingly uninventive that I literally couldn't stand (nor sit!) to read it. The characters were neither inviting nor intriguing, and the story went nowhere that hasn't already been trampled by the feet of countless writers into chill and unappealingly scruffy pack ice. So what was the point of one more flat, cheesy, Christmas cookie-cutter romance? I submit it to you that there is none to be made.

It's the so-trite-it's-shite city girl versus country boy, rich versus poor, helpless versus capable story we're read a billion times before. There is literally nothing new here. Once more we have a girl on the run from a bad romance, because you know that all women are cowardly and weak, and they routinely flee to a new city when a romance goes bad. Curiously, they always seem to arrive in perfect time to immediately fall in love with either a complete stranger or an old flame (ELO! It's either real or it's a dream there's nothing that is in between!), whereas in reality, a woman like that would be a total moron or a limp rag of a person who is of no use to anyone.

As if this isn't bad enough, there's the sorry fiction that every woman needs a Saint George to rescue her from some dragon or other. The fleeing whimpering woman has to be saved and validated by the perfect guy - who can be either simple and country or a billionaire, but who must be a complete stud-muffin in all other regards. excuse me while I barf. This book had no redeeming features whatsoever and I cannot recommend it.