A fresh, interstellar Christmas adventure that’s sure to be a read-aloud staple for the season.
Santa finally visits Mars in an intergalactic twist on Clement C. Moore’s “A Visit From St. Nicholas.”
One young Martian is filled with excitement on Christmas Eve. Could this be the year that the red planet finally gets a visit from Santa? After going to bed, the little Martian is soon awakened by a clamor that could only be Santa himself. Disaster strikes when Santa’s sleigh begins to malfunction and crash-lands on the surface of Mars. The Martian must summon the Outer Space Rescue Division for help: “Come Hubble and Gamma! / Come Barlow and Oort! / Come Kelvin and Nova! / Come Quasar and Vort!” Using an array of tools and blueprints, technicians rush to the rescue, checking everything from the cockpit to the cocoa dispenser. After Santa and the technicians have put things right, a relieved Santa goes on his way—full of cookies and polar-ice juice—but not before filling the stockings of the snoozing Martians. Playful, bouncy rhyming couplets are modeled after the original poem, with familiar themes sprinkled throughout and plenty of gadgets and gizmos for aspiring engineers and outer-space lovers alike. Dynamic illustrations convey movement and excitement in muted tones, with tons of fun, extraterrestrial details to spot. Martians have fuzzy, round heads like cotton balls, with large eyes, fluffy tails, and colorful antennae. Santa is tan-skinned.
A fresh, interstellar Christmas adventure that’s sure to be a read-aloud staple for the season. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9781250870308
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Godwin Books
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Cookie-cutter predictability.
After all the daring escapes in the How To Catch… series, will the kids be able to catch Santa?
Oddly, previous installments saw the children trying (and failing) to catch an elf and a reindeer, but both are easily captured in this story. Santa, however, is slippery. Tempted but not fooled by poinsettias, a good book (attached to a slingshot armed with a teddy bear projectile), and, of course, milk and cookies, Santa foils every plan. The hero in a red suit has a job to do. Presents must be placed, and lists must be checked. He has no time for traps and foolery (except if you’re the elf, who falls for every one of them). Luckily, Santa helps the little rascal escape each time. Little is new here—the kids resort to similar snares found in previous works: netting, lures, and technological wonders such as the Santa Catcher 5000. Although the rhythm falters quite a bit (“How did we get out you ask? / It looked like we were done for. / Santa’s magic is very real, / and I cannot reveal more”), fans of the series may not mind. Santa and Christmas just might be enough to overcome the flaws. Santa and the elf are light-skinned, one of the children is brown-skinned, and the other presents as Asian. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Cookie-cutter predictability. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781728274270
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A forgettable effort that fails to capture any of the magical charm of Santa’s story. (Picture book. 3-6)
Wallace and Elkerton continue their series about catching elusive mythical creatures (How to Catch a Leprechaun, 2016, etc.) with this Christmas story about an elf who must avoid traps constructed by children before Santa’s annual visit.
The unnamed elf narrator is the sole helper traveling with Santa on his delivery rounds on Christmas Eve, with each house featuring a different type of trap for elves. The spunky elf avoids a mechanical “elf snatcher,” hidden in a plate of cookies, as well as simple traps made of tinsel, double-sided tape, and a cardboard box concealing a mean-looking cat. Another trap looks like a bomb hidden in a box of candy, and a complicated trap in a maze has an evil cowboy clown with a branding iron, leading to the elf’s cry, “Hey, you zapped my tushy!” The bomb trap and the branding iron seem to push the envelope of child-made inventions. The final trap is located in a family grocery store that’s booby-trapped with a “Dinner Cannon” shooting out food, including a final pizza that the elf and Santa share. The singsong, rhyming text has a forced cheeriness, full of golly-jolly-holly Christmas spirit and too many exclamation marks, as well as rhyming word pairs that miss the mark. (No, little elf-boy, “smarter” and “harder” do not rhyme.) Bold, busy illustrations in a cartoon style have a cheeky appeal with a focus on the freckle-faced white elf with auburn curls and a costume with a retro vibe. (Santa is also white.)
A forgettable effort that fails to capture any of the magical charm of Santa’s story. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4631-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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