Noshing with the Nuts! Merry Christmas, Peanut! by Terry Border

It was Christmas Day, and Peanut and his parents were on their way to his grandmother's house for dinner.

Little Peanut is just nutty about Christmas, and visiting Groundnutter, er, Grandmother, just makes it butter, er, better!

But the ride is s-o-o-o long, especially when the family gets stuck in a holiday traffic jam, or is that a traffic jelly? And who is that beside the road looking un-done? It's his friend the Baker, moaning.

"Now I can't make my famous jelly doughnuts!"

"I'm the Merry Christmas Nut," said Peanut. "Come with us."

All's well until the Peanuts are ready to go over the river and through the woods, when they see that the bridge is out. Luckily, Sailor's boat is there to float them across, but he's no merry ferry man because he's all alone on Christmas, so the Merry Christmas Peanut invites him to join his party.

But just into the woods Lumberjack's sad face stops them again. His ax is broken and now he can't cut Christmas trees for everyone, but Peanut's invitation to join them makes him smile. The Peanut family and guests resume their journey until they run into a sudden snowfall. Father didn't pack his shovel, so Baker offers his spatula to clear the road, Lumber Jack lights his lantern, and the journey continues through the snow on the way to Grandmother's Christmas feast.

And it's hurray for the jelly doughnuts and even a snowy sleepover in store, in Terry Border's latest nutty tale, Merry Christmas, Peanut! (Philomel Books, 2017). It's another of author Border's little-legume-who-could stories, with artist Border milking the visual puns--the woods are filled with Christmas tree cookies with sprinkles--for all they are worth in his third book in his popular Peanut series. Border cleverly mixes real objects--peanuts, cookie trees, tinsel, and toys-- with his soft and wintry backgrounds in an eye-candy kind of illustrations which will please fans of his earlier Peanut Butter and Cupcake and its many spin-off board books, with just the right accompaniment, his hit go-with, Milk Goes to School. (see reviews here.) For a light and tasty Christmas treat, this one is both sweet and savory!