THE CHRISTMAS SWEATER

A child and a dog make their way home, thanks to a Christmas sweater.

When Theo’s Yiayia (Greek for Grandmother) gives the youngster’s pug, Ari, a gaudy red sweater bejeweled with jingle bells and other sparkly accoutrements, the pooch “sniff[s] it once and step[s] away.” Theo, however, is delighted with Yiayia’s gift of snowshoes, and the child takes the sweater-clad pup on a hike to Echo Lake. Along the way, and unbeknownst to Theo, Ari’s Christmas sweater gets snagged on a branch and begins to unravel, dropping bells and other decorations into the snow, the red thread extending out behind them. Brett’s signature decorative frames provide visual foreshadowing and emphasis for key points in the narrative as it unspools, with woodland creatures such as curious magpies making appearances. When Theo gets lost, there’s something of a Hansel and Gretel resolution in the works as the child finds the way home to Yiayia not by a trail of stones or breadcrumbs, but by following the red thread and the fallen bells and baubles. Brett’s legions of fans will delight in this new Christmastime story, with plenty to pore over in the detailed, wintry illustrations. Theo and Yiayia are pale-skinned and of Greek heritage; readers with a grounding in Greek mythology will note parallels between Brett’s tale and the legend of Theseus escaping the Minotaur’s labyrinth with the aid of a ball of thread given to him by the princess Ariadne.

A merry choice for Christmastime.