38 - Wednesday, December 5, 1990 — North Shore News Rudclph-approved kids’ books for Christmas reading RYING TO decide which books are naughty and nice gets harder and harder every Christmas. So this year | decided to consult the North Pole’s recognized expert on matiers !iterary, that reindeer about (and over; town, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reviewer. ft was hardly surprising that Rudolph was all aglow over Ap- plewood Books’ release of ihe Roben L. May yarn that brought the quintessential quadruped himself to life. Ruldoiph The Red-Nosed Reindeer is, as the publishers proudly announce, “An authen- tic reproduction of the original” prepared for Montgomery Ward 51 years ago. Utilizing the same illustrations, design and type face as the 1939 version, Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (Applewood/Thomas Allen & Son; 30 pp.; $13.95, hard- cover) was available in the U.S. in 1989 for its 50th anniversary but only introduced here this year. Two other favorites from Christmases past also received two hooves up: Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol and The Night Before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore. Interestingly enough where the the former is concerned, there are two new editions warthy of note although neither is completely true to Dickens’ story as first published in 1843, The lengthier of the two is Scott Cook's A Christmas Carol (Ran- dom House; 60 pp.; $19.95, hard- cover) a moderately abridged in- terpretation beautifully illustrated with full-color images strongly reminiscent of 19th century English scenes. Mercer Meyers has taken an en- tirely different approach with his adaption of A Christmas Carol (Collier Macmillan; 38 pp.; $22.50, hardcover), replacing the human characters with a thoroughly charming (and delightfully rendered) clan of mice. As you've probably guessed by the length of the two texts, Mercer's title shows the greatest departure from the source but its relative brevity and micecapades should be ideal fare for younger » Beiends’ Cotta Jackee and Elaine wish to advise that our annual “Windsor Street’ Craft Fair wii? not be held this Christmas and to thank you for your past support. You can now find the same high quality and a larger selection of Canadian crafts and collectibies at ... Jackee’s book review children. ‘Twas the night before Christmas...” is quite possibly the best-known opening line in English literature and indeed is often employed as the title of this Yuletide poem by Moore. But here's an interesting bit of arcane information for trivia buffs: even the current tithe The Night Retcie Christmas, is incorrect. When Moore penned these im- mortal werds in 1823, he called his work A Visit From St. Nicholas. Wendy Watson’s variation on The Night Before Christmas (Clarion/Thomas Allen & Son; 27 pp.: $20.95, hardcover) is ex- pressively simple, colorful and otherwise faithful to the Moore classic. Do you know all of tne gifts sent on The 12 Days of Christmas? No? Well, an easy way to rectify that is with this inexpensive stock- ing stuffer by Hilary Knight. The 12 Days of Christmas (Alad- din/Collier Macmillan; 27 pp.; $6.95, softcover) are celebrated in this case by Bejamin and Bedelia, a pair of amorous bears witha herd of winsome wildlife. In addition to the tried-and-true there are always new Christmas- theme books to be considered. The Little Crooked Christmas Tree (North Winds Press; 19 pp.; $24.95, hardcover) by Michael Cutting and Ron Broda is one of the few marriages of book and audio cassette that works wonder- . fully. Cutting’s story of a lopsided Christmas tree who doesn’t know the meaning of Christmas is ac- companied by Broda’s striking artwork (each image is composed of brilliantly colored paper sculptures which, even reproduc- ed in flat page form, appear three-dimensional). Right now Chateau Whistler Resort is opening doors for And Christopher Plummer, nar- rator ot the audio cassette which accompanies The Little Crooked Christmas Tree, has the kind of voice that 1s pertectly suited for the tus, of recounting this arboreal adventure. Denys Cazet’s Christmas Moon (Collier Macmillan: 27 pp.: $17.95, hardcover) captures the magical excitement of Christmas with the tale of a young bunny named Patrick. Although rather brief (most rab- bit tales are short, for that matter), Christmas Moon is a pleasing little story that may help children and parents deal with celebration of the festive season in the absence of a parent or grandparent. ts there a child anywhere (or an adult for that matter) who can resist those nifty books with press-out-and-assemble pages? Of course not. That's why Here Comes Santa (Scholastic) is guar- arteed to be the one gift that no one will want to return. Rudolph was very impressed with Here Comes Santa, pointing out (a confusing thing censidering just how many points a reindeer has) that Helene Appell-Mertiny’s book is far longer than most (36 pages of full-color cut outs in fact) and a bargain at $7.95. One fast book that Rudolph thought to mention before his northward flight home wasn’t about Christmas at all but, because he’s a magnanimous sort of holiday herbivore, he decided to include it anyway. P. Bear’s New Year’s Party (Silvio Mattacchione & Co./Firefly; 30 pp.: $4.95), a counting book by Paul Lewis, is an instructional title featuring P. Bear and his New Year's guests. As each hour strikes, beginning at I p.m. and continuing to minutes before the stroke of mid- night (P. Bear's obviously a party animal) the host's invitees arrive. There’s a whale at one, five skunks at five, several snow leopards at seven and so on — sort of a me- nagerie-a-beaucoup. Sull, it's 2% great fun and, ac- cording to Rudolph, beat out the counting competition by — what else? — a nose. 5 Ror roon/night’ 00 GEORGE WALKER'S WINTER TERM '91 New classes Register Now! F® % most ' Off sushi Monday & Tuesday 8:30-10:00 pm. 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