When Santa Wrote Back!

PreS-Gr 1–Many children write to Santa, but they’re highly unlikely to receive a genuine reply, let alone establish a correspondence. In this hilarious epistolary story, little Jake’s earnest but rapacious letters get jolly old St. Nick’s attention. Included in the boy’s 10-page list are “a robot for opening gifts at high speed,/ a trumpet, a ­jetpack, a hot air balloon,/ a dinosaur egg, and a piece of the moon.” Santa’s ­increasingly pointed suggestions that the child needs to dial back his requests result in Jake telling him to go on vacation instead. Taking up this advice, Santa leaves the boy as his temporary substitute. Even the burdens of the job (a permanent beard, snow in his bedroom, a barrage of mail) do not teach Jake a lesson. In a sudden and somewhat unexpected reversal, it’s his interaction with other ­children and the discovery of their unselfish wishes that finally make the boy understand the true meaning of gifts. Santa resumes his post and rewards Jake with his most desired gift of all. Pino’s brightly colored, cartoonish ­illustrations augment the story’s hilarity with highly expressive, energetic characters and frequent juxtaposition of explosive pictures with the more tongue-in-cheek letter content. A list of helpful tips for writing a letter to Santa is included at the end. ­