AND NOW WE CALL HIM SANTA CLAUS

This is an exercise in design which employs the bold green and red of Christmas. It is an explanation of the legend of St. Nicholas for the youngest children. On the last 2 pages, in one fell swoop, St. Nicholas acquires reindeer and the reader acquires the information that ""now we call him Santa Claus"". There is none of the transition provided necessary to any clear understanding of the legends and the lands the legends went through to produce the Santa Claus we know here. The captions, in a print far too small for the amount of space given them, are short, flat sentences. It is hard to imagine any true believers identifying the figure of St. Nicholas -- which resembles a clothes pin in a stiff paper tent -- with the figure that they recognize as Santa Claus. The author/illustrator's style would perhaps be better suited to other subjects for it does have a certain humor and rhythm.