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SANTA! by Rufus Butler Seder

SANTA!

A Scanimation Picture Book

by Rufus Butler Seder ; illustrated by Rufus Butler Seder

Pub Date: Sept. 24th, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7611-7725-8
Publisher: Workman

In the fourth entry in his Scanimation series, Seder demonstrates what Santa can do with a little Christmas magic up his fur-trimmed sleeve.

The cover has a round die cut with an illustration showing Santa with a hula hoop around his waist. As soon as the glittery white cover is opened, Santa swings into action, twisting that hoop around his portly waist behind an acetate overlay of thin black-and-white stripes. This gives the effect of an animated inset, achieved by technology similar to a flip book but concentrated in a small window. A simple, rhyming text describes Santa’s actions as he juggles candy canes, twirls around on ice skates, does a back flip and a cartwheel, and kisses Rudolph on the nose. The final illustration shows Santa with his pipe, blowing a huge bubble that magically spells out “Merry Christmas.” The illustrations are a little dark due to the striped overlays, but the novelty is both mystifying and undeniably mesmerizing. This is a book that will interest everyone around the Christmas tree, from toddlers who use board books to older kids who will want to know how the moving pictures work.

A gimmick…but one with a lot of bang for the buck.

(Picture book. All ages)