The Santa secret
(Kids Holiday)

Gr 1-3-When Kari's family asks her what she would like for Christmas, she confidently retorts, "Santa knows!" After many creative but unsuccessful attempts to get her to reveal her wish, Christmas arrives and, to everyone's surprise and relief, Kari mysteriously does get exactly what she wanted-a kitten. The well-paced story incorporates the family bloodhound's thoughts and olfactory observations, adding a bit of amusement and making it appealing to children. The full-color, expressive cartoon drawings of a white middle-class family play an integral part in helping youngsters decode and understand the text. This should be a popular choice for newly independent readers.-Maureen Wade, Los Angeles Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Wallace and Björkman join forces again for their second easy-reader collaboration, this time with a Christmas theme. The text of this longer reader is divided into short chapters that help to increase the suspense as the holiday draws near. The family who is preparing for Christmas consists of two parents, two sons and a daughter named Kari, who is the middle child. She answers her parents' repeated requests for her gift list with the same reply, "Santa knows what I want." Both parents and brothers try to pry her wishes out of her to no avail, and she receives some nice but traditional gifts on Christmas morning. As the father starts to build a fire in the fireplace, the family dog hears scratching from the chimney. Just in the nick of time a soot-covered kitten is discovered: the answer to Kari's secret Christmas wish. The plot is rather pedestrian, though Björkman's distinctive watercolor-and-ink illustrations in his loose, flowing style add some pizzazz, as does the presence of the faithful family dog, a bloodhound named D.B. (Easy reader. 6-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Gr 1-3 –When Kari's family asks her what she would like for Christmas, she confidently retorts, "Santa knows!" After many creative but unsuccessful attempts to get her to reveal her wish, Christmas arrives and, to everyone's surprise and relief, Kari mysteriously does get exactly what she wanted–a kitten. The well-paced story incorporates the family bloodhound's thoughts and olfactory observations, adding a bit of amusement and making it appealing to children. The full-color, expressive cartoon drawings of a white middle-class family play an integral part in helping youngsters decode and understand the text. This should be a popular choice for newly independent readers.–Maureen Wade, Los Angeles Public Library