ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 22, 1996 TAG: 9612240001
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: BOOK REVIEW
Reviewed by
REESE GOLDSMITH
FLIGHT OF THE REINDEER: The True Story of Santa Claus and His Christmas Mission. By Robert Sullivan. Drawings by Glenn Wolff. Macmillan. $19.95. Audio version read by John Ritter. Unabridged. Audio Literature. $17.95.
Santa Claus is real! If you don't believe me, just listen to the tape or read the book "Flight of the Reindeer" by Robert Sullivan.
The "Flight of the Reindeer" tells about a breed of reindeer that fly and that help Santa at Christmastime. There are stories about people who actually have seen or talked to Santa. Or both!!
The tape is read by John Ritter, mostly known as Jack in "Three's Company." He makes interesting voices and reads with expression.
Reese Goldsmith is a fourth-
grader at North Cross School.
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Reviewed by
WILL AND ALEX
DUNKENBERGER
THE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS: A Pop-up Celebration. By Robert Sabuda. Simon & Schuster. $20.
When Mommy and Daddy told us they had a new Christmas book to read to us, we wanted to know if it had buttons to push so that it could make noises. At first, we were disappointed that it did not have buttons to push, but instead it has great pop-up pictures of birds, milkmaids and a reindeer that has gold rings on his antlers.
The pictures have lots of delicate detail. That is what Mommy said. We just think it is really neat how the birdcage has a door that opens and the dancing ladies have a mirror behind them that we can make faces in.
Even though it is a Christmas book, Santa Claus is not in it. It is really a book about counting, and while we were reading it we had to tell Daddy to be quiet so that we could count all the pictures. We wanted to read the book a bunch of times, and after a while we were singing instead of reading.
When Will sang about three French toasts and two turtle necks, Mommy and Daddy laughed really hard. (They are so goofy sometimes.) We both really like "The 12 Days of Christmas," but Alex cannot look at it by himself because he is too rough on the pop-up pictures. The book is full of pretend things, and we love pretend things, but if Santa Claus were in the pear tree it might be even better.
Will and Alex Dunkenberger ages 4 and 2, attend preschool in
Salem and build forts in Elliston.
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Reviewed by MADDIE ROSS
THE CHRISTMAS BIRD. By Bernadette Watts. North-South Books. $15.95.
I love this book, and my parents also like it. It's about the joy of giving. Bernadette Watts wrote the story and drew the pictures. The pictures fill up your heart. I think this book would be great for you.
Maddie Ross, age 7, lives in
Franklin County and loves all animals.
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Reviewed by NICOLE KLETT
LITTLE POLAR BEAR, TAKE ME HOME!. By Hans de Beer. North-South Books. $15.95.
Dear Editor: Thank you for the book. It was terrific, fantastic, great and cool. I really liked it. I am going to write a book. I love books. They are: way cool, terrific, fantastic and good and great. Love, Nicole.
Nicole Klett is an 8-year-old
who loves books.
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Reviewed by NATHANIEL RIES
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BRIDGE. By Wolfram Hanel. Illustrated by Alex de Wolf. North-South Books. $13.95.
"The Other Side of the Bridge" is a book first published in Switzerland about a young boy named Andy who is very interested in nature. Andy is not large in size and not good at sports, and sometimes he is bullied by a boy named Big Jon. Andy shows his courage when he is on a nature hike looking for signs of spring and gets lost in a dangerous late winter snowstorm.
The reader learns through Andy that people are often more than their reputations. The scary hermit in the woods is a fellow nature lover, and big bullies are sometimes boys who need help in making friends. Early readers will enjoy looking beyond the surface of things with Andy.
Nathaniel Ries is in the fourth
grade and is Benjamin's older brother.
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Reviewed by BENJAMIN RIES
WAKE UP, SANTA CLAUS! By Marcus Pfister. North-South Books. $15.95.
Marcus Pfister sold a smashing 2.5 million copies of his earlier book, "The Rainbow Fish," because of the clever and novel use of a touch of holographic foil on each page of his richly jewel-toned, watercolor illustrations. He enters the Christmas market with "Wake Up Santa Claus!'' in which Santa oversleeps on the most important morning of the year, awakes in a panic and continues to find at every turn that he has forgotten to carry out the necessary preparations for his annual trip around the world.
Six-year-old Benjamin laughed out loud at all the screw-ups, but, as Santa's delays mounted, even sunny Benjamin looked worried: "I was really afraid that Santa and the reindeer would never be able to dig themselves out of that snowdrift!"
Benjamin was satisfied with the happy ending of this tale, but parents may be uncomfortable with the plot resolution, a device infamously used once back in the '80s to explain away an entire season of the TV series "Dallas."
Kindergartner Benjamin Ries
thanks his mom for help with this
review.
Beth-This should fit alongside crossword puzzle
Sweet story for holidays
captures meaning of Christmas
Reviewed by
BARBARA M. DICKINSON
THE ANGEL DOLL. By Jerry Bledsoe. Down Home Press. $14.95.
Attention Scrooges, curmudgeons and bone-weary Christmas shoppers: Jerry Bledsoe's "The Angel Doll" is the book for you. Before you can shout "Bah, Humbug!" you'll be tasting a 12-ounce RC Cola (a "belly washer''), sniffing fragrant cedar trees on a frosty morning and pulling out your hanky to wipe a sentimental tear from your eye.
Bledsoe, a North Carolinian, may be familiar to local readers through his columns in the Greensboro News & Record and the Charlotte Observer. He achieved more than local recognition when his novel "Bitter Blood" soared to the top of The New York Times best-seller list. He has written 10 other books and contributed to many national publications.
"The Angel Doll" is more of a sweet (read: very sweet) essay on the true meaning of Christmas than it is an actual story. The reader travels to Thomasville, N.C., in the early '50s, an idyllic time when children rode bicycles without fear on the town's streets and spent their entire 25 cents allowance on a movie and a soda. It was, also, a time of horror, when the shadow of a polio epidemic loomed and the whisper of a factory closing foretold economic disaster. Add a frail little girl whose favorite book is "The Littlest Angel," a big brother who adores her, a series of predictable misfortunes, and you almost have the plot. Nothing new, but endearing.
It is a small treasure to bestow on a Christmas-loving person (like myself) if for no other reason than the utterly enchanting, beguiling, captivating front cover. Thank you, Jerry Bledsoe, for enriching our Christmas tradition with "The Angel Doll."
Barbara M. Dickinson fell in
love with "The Angel Doll."
Beth-The left column could go under a single head Christmas Briefs (separate heads are on hard copy)
CHRISTMAS BRIEFS
art
Stories of the season
A STRANGER FOR CHRISTMAS.
By Carol Lynn Pearson. St. Martin's Press. $13.95.
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIFT.
By Jonathan Snow. Warner Books. $12.95.
Both of these titles are published in the small, slim style reminiscent of a personal diary. The stories are gentle but not syrupy-sweet.
"A Stranger for Christmas" is the stronger of the two. We are introduced to three ladies in their 80s who live in nursing homes. As they face Christmas without a visit with their families, we are led through a series of events that reveals the strengths and weaknesses of our times. This story would be an ideal read-aloud selection for a church or family holiday gathering.
"The Most Beautiful Gift" is a young person's story with few surprises. A very advanced 8-year-old, who thinks more like an 11-or 12-year-old, makes it possible for his grandfather to shine with his stories as perfectly as a snowflake. For those of every age who pray for snow at Christmas, this is just the book.
- PEGGY DAVIS
A CAT UNDER THE MISTLETOE.
By Lydia Adamson. Dutton. $18.95.
Lydia Adamson is the pseudonym of a well-known mystery writer who has written a number of successful mysteries featuring Alice Nestleton and her two cats as the protagonists. An out-of-work actress, Alice supplements her income by cat-sitting for rich cat owners in Manhattan.
Her latest charge is Roberta, a troublesome tortoiseshell who is being treated by a famous feline psychologist, Wilma Tedescu. Alice takes Roberta to her regularly scheduled appointment with Wilma only to find the psychologist dead from a gunshot wound. Wilma's estranged husband, a former Romanian basketball player, and Alice are high on the list of suspects.
How Alice sets out to prove her innocence and that of Wilma's husband with the help of feline friends makes for a light-hearted mystery set in the hectic pre-Christmas activity of New York City. This book could make an ideal stocking stuffer for cat-doting mystery fans.
- JILL BOWEN
A CHRISTMAS MEMORY.
By Truman Capote. Illustrated by Beth Peck. Alfred A. Knopf. $19.
Fruitcakes have long been the brunt of holiday jokes, but the role they play in this simple, heartwarming story by Truman Capote will place them back in favor with readers of all ages. The story is drawn from Capote's own childhood when, until the age of 10, he lived with elderly cousins in Alabama, and the genuine nature of his story makes it stand out from the holiday pap that tends to invade our bookstores from November on. Richly illustrated by Beth Peck, this glimpse of life and its essence and, yes, its sad realities is worth a place near the family hearth.
- MARY ANN JOHNSON
THE SECRET LIFE OF SANTA CLAUS.
By Gregoire Solotareff. Chronicle Books. $17.95.
From A to Z, Solotareff provides a number of short, wry anecdotes about Santa and his life at the North Pole. For example: Pound - When Santa eats too many good things, he gets fat and puts on 200 pounds. Then the elves tease him and call him Big Red Riding Hood.
Occasionally, the anecdotes are touching: Miserable - When he was little, Santa was miserable because there was no Santa Claus yet. Each humorous tidbit is set against an unusual, attractive and colorful drawing that compliments the adjoining words and adds to the fun.
- RONALD LANKFORD
Peggy Davis lives in Fincastle.
Jill Bowen is a veterinarian living in Blacksburg.
Mary Ann Johnsono is book page editor.
Ronald Lankford is a teller at First National Bank in Christiansburg.
LENGTH: Long : 212 linesby CNB