A Bit of Applause for Mrs. Claus

September 1, 2012
A slight story about Mrs. Claus and her efforts to fill in for Santa when he gets sick on Christmas Eve. A family team of two sisters and one of their daughters created this short, mildly amusing story about Mrs. Claus rushing about the North Pole to get everything ready for the big night. (A previously published version by this team with the same title focused on Mrs. Claus on the day after Christmas.) This time she answers letters to Santa, trims the trees and decks the halls, bakes cookies and wraps presents with the help of the elves. Just as the reindeer are hitched up to the sleigh, Santa reappears in time to deliver the toys himself. The unspoken subtext is that Mrs. Claus (read: moms of the world) have to work at warp speed to pull off the Christmas carnival and thus deserve some praise. The brief rhyming text has some logic issues: Why would Mrs. Claus need to answer children's letters to Santa on Christmas Eve? Whose trees and halls does she decorate? Charming watercolor illustrations in candy-bright colors include decorative borders full of ornamental Christmas details, and Mrs. Claus has a delightful spiral beehive hairdo, but the cheery art doesn't offset the less-than-innovative text. Just a bit of applause for this one. (Picture book. 3-6)

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October 1, 2012

K-Gr 3-We've seen this scenario before... "It's the day before Christmas, /But Santa's sick with the flu!/Mrs. Claus has a problem: /'There's still so much to do!'" The missus, with her cat's-eye glasses, bobble earrings, and whipped-cream hair, becomes increasingly frazzled as she takes care of the last-minute details: letters, presents, decking the halls, baking the cookies, and so on. Santa is miraculously cured just in time to jump into the sleigh and make the deliveries (and get all the credit), but in this case children are invited to applaud the hard work of his better half. Malinow's watercolors add just the right amount of bounce and whimsy to the proceedings. The short text, fun pictures, and underlying message (Mrs. Claus is really a stand-in for whatever adult in a child's life makes sure that the details are taken care of) make this a decent choice for a holiday storytime.-Mara Alpert, Los Angeles Public Library

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2013
"It's the day before Christmas, / But Santa's sick with the flu! / Mrs. Claus has a problem: 'There's still so much to do!'" Her inept efforts to tree-trim, hall-deck, and the like would be funny if the rhymes weren't so clunky, and Santa's Christmas Eve recovery feels like a cop-out. The art features holiday-motif-stuffed borders and a stylish-looking Mrs. Claus.

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)