Many of this fall's best books are holiday stories. The return of familiar characters and artistry of favorite authors bring cheer this season.
Don and Audrey Wood's beloved Little Mouse is back in Merry Christmas, Big Hungry Bear! (Scholastic, $15.95; ages 3-6). In the first book, the narrator helped Little Mouse learn to share. As this story begins, Little Mouse sits on a high stack of brightly wrapped presents. The narrator asks if he's afraid they'll be stolen by the Bear who would do anything for a present, but sits alone in his cold cave without any. Hearing this, Little Mouse opens his heart and ventures out on a cold night to bring gifts and joy to the Big Hungry Bear he fears!
The two wacky I-Can-Read cows are back in Denys Cazet's Minnie and Moo: The Night Before Christmas (HarperCollins,$15.99; ages 5-9). When the farmer forgets to deliver his presents, the cows become Clauses. They attach a fork to a rooster with attitude, turn him into a reindeer and they hitch him up to an old wheelbarrow for a wild holiday ride. Cazet cow-customizes the familiar Christmas eve poem and weaves in and out of the story of this humorous night of giving!
Jan Brett's bases her new book on an old Norwegian tale. Her heroine, Kyri, and her friends returns in Who's That Knocking on Christmas Eve? (Putnam, $16.99; ages 4-8). Kyri, the boy from Finnmark, and his big white bear fend off pesky trolls to keep the holiday happy. The interiors of Kyri's quaint wooden hut seem warm when contrasted with beautiful snowy landscapes. Brett's trademark intricate boarders foreshadow and expand the story.
Elise Primavera's Auntie Claus, the big sister of Santa, returns in Auntie Claus and the Key to Christmas. (HBJ, $16.00; ages 5-9). When Primavera's prequel was launched, Auntie Clause dominated Macy's windows and captured young enthusiasts. In the first book, Auntie Claus straightened out her niece Sophie's holiday spirit. Now she turns her attentions to her questioning nephew, Christopher Kringle. Joyful pictures, wild adventures, and eccentric explanations help Chris learn Auntie Claus' motto "all the best things are invisible" and her key to Christmas, "sometimes you have to believe in order to see."
Some of children's books' most celebrated authors and illustrators join the holiday fun. Three pop-ups come from masters in the field.Pamela Pease's Macy's on Parade! (Paintbox Press, $36.00; all ages) reveals histories, mysteries, and trivia with exquisite pop-up constructions that show familiar icons of the 75 year old parade. In David Carter's Chanukah Bugs (Little Simon, $10.95; ages 4-8), eight bugs burst from bright packages to light up the festival. The Christmas classic, Clement Moore's The Night Before Christmas (Little Simon, $24.95; all ages) is recreated by the master of paper engineer, Robert Sabuda.
Holiday stories come from two of the most sensitive authors, Eve Bunting and Patricia Polacco. The joy and love of family, abundant food, and light set the stage for Eve Bunting's One Candle (HarperCollins, $15.99; ages 7-10). In this setting, elderly Great-Aunt Rose and Grandmother Lily tell the story of how they brought light and celebration to their stark barracks in Buchenwald's concentration camp. K. Wendy Popp's subdued colors and monochromes differentiate the story's two periods with a tenderness that matches the text.
Patricia Polacco's Christmas Tapestry (Philomel, $16.99; ages 7- 10)begins one summer when Jonathan's father preacher comes to work in a run-down church. After months of repairing, cleaning, and painting, people fill the church to hear his father's sermons and delight in a sense of community. All goes well until a pre-Christmas blizzard ruins the wall waiting for a beautiful painting. Jonathan's father calms Jonathan's distress by reminding him that God always has a plan. That plan unfolds one miraculous Christmas Eve when Father and son find a piece of cloth to cover the ugly wall, then run into its seamstress, a woman who once used it as her wedding Chuppah. When the plasterer arrives to fix the wall, who should it be but her beloved stolen from her by the Nazis! Predictable? Maybe. Poignant? Definitely.
Christmas Day in the Morning, (HarperCollins, $16.99; ages 6-9) , the 1955 story by Pearl Buck is renewed with illustrations by Mark Buehner. A fifteen-year-old boy overhears his farmer father tell how he hates waking his poor son so early to do chores. Suddenly, the boy understands his father's love and wants to find a special gift for Christmas. He wakes early, does all the chores and allows his father to watch the young children take in the Christmas tree for the first time. The father swears he'll never forget the "best Christmas gift" he's ever gotten. The boy always remembers the morning he gave "his first gift of true love."
The classic 'Twas the Night Before Christmas (Candlewick, $16.00; ages 5 and up) is rendered in monochromes by Matt Tavers. His pre-Victorian illustrations stay true to the original story and give the book the heirloom quality that makes it a holiday reading tradition.