CHIMNEY HAZARD! Click, Clack, Ho! Ho! Ho! by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin

SNOW IS FALLING.

LIGHTS TWINKLE.

A FEW CREATURES ARE STIRRING.

IT'S CHRISTMAS EVE.

And there's a portentious jingle in the air over at the old Brown place. Farmer Brown is hanging stockings--labeled SHEEP, one COWS, PIGS, CHICKENS, and even one for MICE. The halls are decked and the mice are pleased as they peep from their holes, miming a shhhhhhhh! to Mr. Brown.

Duck, disguised as a lineman for the county, is high atop a utility pole, tool belt and all, watching for a certain airborne visitor, and at the sounding of jingling bells, he shoots down a zipline to Farmer Brown's snow-topped chimney. Donning his handy night vision goggles, he surveys the sky and spots a sleigh approaching in the distance.

HO! HO! HO!

Duck ducks down the chimney, taking the the short route to alert Farmer Brown. But...

UH-OH!

Duck is STUCK!

This is embarrassing! Santa's sleigh and reindeer are silhouetted against the full moon, and the watching farm animals roll into action.

THE COWS COME UP TO UNSTICK DUCK.

HO! HO! HO!

UH-OH!

This is an emergency! The pigs give it a try, but they lodge in the chimney. The chickens, goats, cat, dog, and mice come to help, but they all wind up stuck in the now over-stuffed smokestack!

OH, NO!

This is a job for a professional! Santa Claus never gets stuck in chimneys, and in clouds of soot, Duck and his pals pop out of Farmer Brown's chimney just ahead of St. Nick, in Doreen Cronin's jolly tale of Farmer Brown's chimney, Click, Clack, Ho! Ho! Ho! (Atheneum Books, 2015). Betsy Lewin's classic comic farm animals are a holiday gift in themselves, Duck in Santa hat and night-sight glasses, with similarly attired keyboarding chickens following suit, are just silly enough to have young readers in stitches, and Farmer Brown, relaxing in his long, red, fur-trimmed dressing gown throwing up the window sash to see Santa's approach, provides just the right touch of merry measure for pre-Christmas Eve reading.

"Cronin and Lewin make this slapstick story all their own, leaving readers... with a big dose of holiday cheer," says School Library Journal.

Hitchhiking with Santa: Christmas Wombat by Jackie French

I'M A WOMBAT.

ENJOY SLEEPING, SCRATCHING, AND EATING.

ESPECIALLY EATING.

ESPECIALLY EATING CARROTS.

Wombat lives a simple life. sleeping in a hole in the ground, and eating grass when he can't get carrots--the only thing in life that gets him the least bit excited.

But then, pushing past some annoying "dangly" things inexplicably hanging from a tree, he catches a whiff of something irresistible and follows the scent to an amazing sight--a small plate of cookies and glass of milk and a large basket of CARROTS! With a sign.

FOR SANTA
AND THE REINDEER

To Wombat, all carrots are HIS carrots, and after a serious staring contest, he convinces the reindeer that they are HIS. YUM!

Eating taken care of, Wombat goes on to his next favorite priority--SLEEP.

He finds a comfortable little spot on a big red thing with curvy runners parked near his hole and curls up for a nap, but while he snoozes deeply, as only a wombat can, the sleigh (yes, it's Santa's, stopping off down under), moves on to colder climes. When Wombat awakes to a novel snowy scene, he catches a familiar scent.

I SMELL CARROTS!

A strange rounded white figure in a knit cap and scarf is right in front of Wombat's nose, but it's the nose on the figure he's interested in. Crimey! It's a carrot! YUM!

There seem to be plenty of carrots in this cold place, and if he can just make those reindeer back off, they are all for Wombat! In fact, everywhere this strange sleigh goes, there are more carrots, even down that strange brick wombat hole, hung with socks at the bottom. YUM! Before long, Wombat and those reindeer work out a truce, as there seem to be plenty of carrots for everybody.

But all this travel and fine dining is tiring. Time for a scratch and a snooze in his special cubby in that red sleigh. Let the reindeer do the work. ZZZZZZZ.

And when Wombat wakes from his long winter's nap, he's luckily back home down under, right where he began. The weather is warm again, and the grass is green and lush. But Wombat finds that it has lost its appeal.

GRASS DELICIOUS. BUT FOR SOME REASON NOT HUNGRY.

Jackie French's latest, Christmas Wombat (Houghton Mifflin Clarion, 2012) has her lovable little Wombat finding his own version of a Christmas dinner as Santa's stowaway. As illustrated by ace artist Bruce Whatley, French's characters are as plushy and cuddly-looking as always, and fans of her matter-of-fact little marsupial, a critter of few words and fewer passsions, will love this wry and charming holiday outing. Santa, his chosen conveyance, and his team of reindeer are mostly shown only in part, and, as are the full, always-in-profile illustrations of her main character, who as always finds adventure while simply following what's right in front of his cute little nose.

Other books in French's popular series include Diary of a Wombat, Diary of a BABY Wombat, and How to Scratch a Wombat: Where to Find It . . . What to Feed It . . . Why It Sleeps All Day.

Better Watch Out! It's Christmas, David! by David Shannon

AT CHRISTMASTIME, EVERYONE ALWAYS SAID...

NO, DAVID!

David is ready for Christmas--but is Christmas ready for David?

The pre-Christmas season is hard for David, who has always been a proponent of action--NOW! And in those l-o-o-n-g days before Christmas morning, all David hears is his un-favorite word. NO! And his second-most un-favorite word. WAIT!

"NO PEEKING!" mom says when David climbs up to see what is inside those tantalizingly wrapped presents on the top shelf of the closet.

"Those are NOT toys!" his mom says as David pulls out their treasured tree ornaments and joyfully begins to decorate himself with them.

Open just ONE present early? Not a chance.

"Be PATIENT!" he is urged, as David waits in a very long line to see Santa Claus and read his very long wish list to a weary Santa who has heard it all before.

And worst of all is the oft-repeated warning: "Santa is going to bring you a lump of coal."

On Christmas Eve night, David is sent to bed and ordered to go to sleep, but like all kids everywhere, sleep doesn't come easily. David sneaks out of bed in his Christmas pjs and looks longingly at the night sky for a glimpse of Santa's sleigh. Finally, when he does drift off to dreamland, he dreams that he finds the dreaded letter and lump of coal under his tree:

DEAR DAVID,

SORRY.

YOU WERE NAUGHTY!

LOVE,
SANTA CLAUS

Of course, his ever-loving mom wakes David in the middle of this nightmare.

YOU WERE DREAMING, DAVID!

YES, DAVID. IT'S CHRISTMAS!

Despite his harum-scarum small-boy ways, David Shannon's delightful namesake is a welcome guest this Christmas in his latest addition to this series, It's Christmas, David! (Blue Sky Press, 2010). With his signature inkpen and mixed-media caricature style and his realistic first-grade-style hand-printed text, Shannon's David is everyboy just before Christmas, and kids familiar with the other books will love sharing the pre-Christmas excitement with him.

Shannon's earlier books include the earlier best-selling No, David!, David Gets in Trouble, and David Goes To School and their short but sweet prequels, the Diaper David series.

Sam's Sleigh Ride: Santa's Stowaway by Brandon Dorman

It was Christmas in Santa's workshop.

"HO, HO, HO!" said Santa to the elves. "It's time for the final inspection."

Sam was excited. It was his first year working in the toy shop...., but as Santa turned to leave, Sam asked, "Santa, why do we work so hard making all these toys? Why does Christmas matter?"

A light began to sparkle in Santa's eyes. "You'll have find that out for yourself."

It's easy to see where this one is going. Sam stows away on Santa's sleigh and is off for the midnight ride, soaring through the blue-black, star-studded night sky, landing on snowy roofs and stealing down chimneys behind Santa as he makes his stops. But it is only when Santa is caught in the act by a shy and wakeful small girl and Sam sees the look in the child's eyes when St. Nick puts the doll Sam made into her arms that Sam finally feels what makes Christmas matter. Santa smiles wisely, having sensed Sam's presence all along:

"You're very clever, my little friend." he said.

"You see, Sam, each year one curious elf stows away on my sleigh to discover what makes Christmas special. And did you find your answer?"

It's not an original plot line: Jan Brett also uses mischievous elves to add an engaging subplot to her lovely, rococo version of The Night Before Christmas (Tenth Anniversary Edition), but her stowaways are merely pranksters. In Brandon Dorman's newest, Santa's Stowaway(Greenwillow, 2009), Sam is on a mission to find out the reason behind all this gift giving, a question that occurs to all of us at some time during the Christmas craziness. Dorman's saftig computer-assisted art, evocative of 1950s illustrative work, glows with color, comfort, and good cheer to reassure the young reader that Santa really means it when he makes that long wintry trek.