Have Yourself A Merry, LITTLE Christmas! Merry Christmas, Mary Christmas! by Laurie Friedman

CHRISTMAS WAS A VERY MERRY TIME FOR THE CHRISTMAS FAMILY...

... Except for their daughter, Mary Christmas. It's enough of a burden to have a name that sounds like a holiday. But the real deal is that the Christmas family can't have a normal Christmas. Every year it has to be a bigger and better extravaganza.

Dad's Christmas tree has to be BIG, so Jack-in-the-Beanstalk big that they have to make a hole in the roof to put it up. Their outdoor lights are guilty of over-GLOW! Their pooch Rudy howls "Jingle Bells" when they go caroling. And Mary is borderline ashamed when they pile way too many presents in their cart when they shop. When the mall Santa take Mary on his knee, she makes a confession:

"I WANT TO LOVE CHRISTMAS," MARY TELLS SANTA, "BUT OUR TREE IS TOO TALL, OUR LIGHTS ARE TOO BRIGHT, AND EVERYTHING IS JUST TOO MUCH!"

Santa can't quite wrap his red-capped head around the idea of too much Christmas, but he gives Mary a wink and a nod.

"I HAVE A FEELING YOU CAN FIND A WAY TO LOVE IT!" HE WHISPERS.

But on Christmas Eve, Mary can't fall asleep. She tosses and turns until she comes to a conclusion.

And when the family gathers on Christmas morn, Mary makes a statement.

"WE DON'T NEED LOADS OF LIGHTS AND PILES OF PRESENTS!" SHE POINTS OUT.

And Mary Christmas shares her plan to give everyone a merry Christmas. They load up the Christmas van with their prodigious pile of gifts and the cookies and the lights and the enormous tree and take it all down to the town square, where they throw a proper Christmas Christmas party for the whole population--and for little Mary Christmas, it's just the right size at last.

Veteran picture book author Laurie Friedman's right-sized Christmas tale, Merry Christmas, Mary Christmas! (CarolRhoda Books) is a comic message about moderation in all things, including Christmas. Little Mary Christmas may be in the minority on the subject of moderate Christmases, but most will enjoy her jolly generosity with its quiet message of giving that suits the season.

Call Me Loved! Alma and How She Got Her Name by Juana Martinez-Neal

Alma Sofia Esperanza Jose Pura Candela had a long name. Too long, if you asked her.

"My name is too long, Daddy. It never fits!" said Alma.

Alma is small and her name is so long. But Daddy has a story to tell her about her name.

"Sofia was your grandmother," he began. "She loved books, poetry, flowers, and, of course, me.

"She was the one who taught me to read!"

Alma loves to read. She loves all those things and her Daddy, too.

"I am SOFIA," she says proudly.

And then Daddy tells her about her great grandmother Esperanza who longed to travel and about her Grandfather Jose' who was an artist and took him on long walks, and about her great great aunt Pura, who believed that the spirits of their ancestors were with them. And he tells her of Candela, her mother's mother.

"She always stood up for what is right!" Daddy says.

"And you are the first and only Alma." said Daddy.

And Alma Sofia Esperanza Jose'Pura Candela is ready to write her own story, one that fits her, in Juana Martinez-Neal's 2019 Caldecott Honor Medal-winning Alma and How She Got Her Name (Candlewick Press). As poet Walt Whitman said, "I contain multitudes." So do we all, and Alma's long name fits her and Auntie Pura was right: her ancestors are with her as she writes her full name and begins her own history just as they did. For people who may know something about their own roots, Martinez-Pura gets it just right, and her warm and charming graphite and colored pencil illustrations tell the story graphically for young readers. Says Publishers Weekly, "It’s an origin story that envelops readers like a hug."

Zombie Spud? ROT: The Cutest in the World by Ben Clanton

Rot is an, um, "mutant" potato. He's actually a bit, er, rotten here and there, and not really handsome, even as overripe veggies go, with a unibrow, one eye that seems a bit moldy, and something strange sorta sprouting from the top of his head.

But this past-his-prime spud has plenty of self confidence, and when he spots a sign--

[CUTEST IN THE WORLD CONTEST THIS WAY]

--Rot is on it like mold on bleu cheese. He feels like a sure winner--that is, until he spots the competition.

There is an itty-bitty baby bunny with fluffy, floppy ears,

A little-wittle bewitching, bewhiskered cuddly kitten,

And an eenie-weenie, pink and peppy, jolly jellyfish.

(Did I mention the other competitors are all in pastel colors, too?)

The other contestants find Rot a little nauseating, while ROT wonders if they wouldn't be toothsome treats! But he rethinks the idea and decides that eating the competition wouldn't help his chances to win. Instead, he decides a little self-cute-ification might be expedient. He tries fake blue bunny ears, cutesy kitty whiskers, and paints himself jellyfish pink sporting a pink tutu and pom-poms.

"Look!" says Rot. "I look like you!"

"Um, NO!" says Bunny.

The other contestants take the stage, sure their cuteness will charm the judges. Rot does his best to strut his stuff, even his spotty backside.

But, WAIT! This contest is crooked! The judges are all rotten--a bad lot! A Blighted Banana, a Wormy Apple, and a Past-Prime Pear?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, in Ben Clanton's clever parody of beauty pageants, Rot, the Cutest in the World! (Atheneum Books, 2017). in which Rot takes the trophy, while the runner-up pink jellyfish tries to vary his look with his own unibrow. Young readers will find Rot irresistibly ticklebox-worthy in author Clanton's tongue-in-cheek text, and artist Clanton uses the faux naif style to great effect with his simple blackline drawings illustrated in blotchy daubs of watercolor that subtly spoof the zombie craze. Rot is NOT pretty, but he is what he is, himself to the core! Says School Library Journal, "An entertaining and irreverent take on self-confidence."