Santa's Secret Helper (1990)

     Santa’s Secret Helper by Andrew Clements is a clever twist on a familiar traditional story. Santa’s elves are especially busy preparing two sleighs, two Santa suits, and two teams of reindeer because “this year Santa has a secret helper”. Debrah Santini’s watercolors have the hint of sepia palette to complement this time-honored tale of reindeer flying over rooftops delivering gifts around the world. We see Santa’s helper eating cookies, resting the reindeer, and waving to parents who are still awake late at night. The surprise ending may help explain how Santa takes so many packages to happy children in only one night.

     This book is read aloud online by Kristn Hubert.

    My Picture Book Talk for this story is here. 

 

If you're not from the prairie . . . (1995)

            David Bouchard shares his intimate relationship with the environment in If you’re not from the prairie .. . “If you’re not from the prairie, You don’t know me. You just can’t know ME.”  This book is an invitation to get to know a little about the author. He and illustrator, Henry Ripplinger, were born and raised on the prairie in Saskatchewan, Canada. The text, much of it in rhyme, and the realistic paintings that illustrate this childhood, describe “a particular beauty”.

 This story could be read—maybe correctly—with attitude. In an author’s note, Mr. Bouchard writes, “…I needed to silence those who didn’t understand that we from the prairie are what we are and who we are because of the cold, the wind, and the sun…Could anyone understand what I was, without having shared my dust, my wind, and my blizzard?” Perhaps it’s because so many people underestimate the extreme challenges and joys of prairie life that David Bouchard wrote “If you don’t know the prairie, you can’t know my soul. . .”  Thank you, Mr. Bouchard and Mr. Ripplinger, for sharing this life with those of us who don’t know the prairie—who can’t know it.

            This book is read aloud online by Shantil Wallace.

            My Picture Book Talk for this story is here.