Santa Paws? The Animals' Santa by Jan Brett

IT'S YOUR FIRST CHRISTMAS EVER, LITTLE SNOW."

THE ANIMALS' SANTA COMES TONIGHT," BIG SNOWSHOE TOLD HIS LITTLE BROTHER.

"I THINK YOU ARE FOOLING ME," SAID LITTLE SNOW.

The little snowshoe hare is skeptical. Who could this Santa be? Hasn't anyone ever found his tracks? Somebody must have seen him!

Little Shoe sets out on a fact-finding mission. He interviews Porcupine, Squirrel, Raven, and Arctic Fox, who describe how the gifts just seemed to drop from above for them. They each have their own ideas--from a mouse to a white wolf--but Little Shoe thinks they are all wrong. And he's going to prove it.

Meanwhile Big Snowshoe decides it is time to put up some Christmas decorations, and breaking the ice on the stream, he hangs the frozen shards from the fir branches to make Yuletide wind chimes. It's all quite lovely, but Little Shoe sees no trace of this animals' Santa anywhere.

BUT SUDDENLY A BUNDLE OF FRESH CLOVER FALLS AT HIS FEET!

A year without a new Jan Brett holiday story is like a winter without a snowflake, and this year we're in luck with Brett's latest, The Animals' Santa (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2014).  Filled with her painstakingly detailed draftsmanship  and glorious colors set against the whitest of snowfalls, this latest Brett tale tells the old story of the little doubter who sets out to prove who or what Santa really is. With her trademark foreshadowing borders decorating each delightful page, this is yet another great story to join her many Christmas classics, Home for Christmas, The Wild Christmas Reindeer, Christmas Trolls, The Night Before Christmas, Who's That Knocking on Christmas Eve? and The Twelve Days of Christmas, to cite some of Brett's many holiday gifts to children.