Review by Booklist Review
Ages 5-7. Don't look for Dasher or Prancer or even Rudolph in this story. Brett introduces a whole new crew of Santa's reindeer, wild ones, who may be unwilling to come in from the tundra and pull Santa's sleigh. The story's heroine is Teeka, who is asked by Santa to get the reindeer ready to fly. Theatrical spreads depict Teeka's struggle with the reindeer, who don't respond to her yelling. Only when she realizes that hugging works better than bossing, do the reindeer unite into the working team that Santa needs to bring Christmas to the world. While the story is nothing extraordinary, the artwork surely is. As with her other books, Brett provides ornamental pictures, heavily detailed and decoratively bordered. Brett is at her best drawing animals, and these winsome creatures, though wild at heart, show a streak of gentleness. If there weren't enough going on in the spreads, eye-catching border scenes depict what's happening in Santa's workshop as the big day draws ever closer. Beautifully conceived and finely wrought. ~--Ilene Cooper
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Little Teeka's attempts to train Santa's reindeer for their Christmas ride meet with disaster until she realizes that she needs to work with the animals in a new way. ``Tomorrow,'' she says, ``no yelling, no screaming, and no bossing, I promise,'' and with her patient teaching, on Christmas Eve the ``wild reindeer rise up together and carry the sleigh off into the night.'' Brett's characteristic, richly detailed borders depict the activity at Santa's workshop as each day brings Teeka closer to Christmas. As with The Mitten , Brett makes use of Ukranian motifs--colorful embroidered costumes, festive garlands, carvings and cunning toys decorate every page. The reindeer themselves--sporting names like Lichen, Tundra and Bramble--provide most of the comic action in this sweet Christmas fantasy that shows Brett at her best. Ages 4-8. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
In a pristine wonderland set in the Arctic shadow of Santa's Winterfarm, Teeka trains the reindeer for their annual flight. After a week of fussing, she finally decides it is her fault that the reindeer have misbehaved: ``I've spent all my time yelling at you, instead of helping. I'm sorry.'' So then the reindeer, with such nontraditional names as Heather, Lichen, Crag, and Tundra, get with the program and come prancing in just under the wire. Brett uses side panels to show elves preparing the Christmas goodies before December 24, when Santa loads up. Borders of holiday symbols and a calendar countdown decorate each page. Told in a somewhat colloquial language, this tale with its humorous close-ups of stubborn reindeer and a sharp child protagonist should prove popular at story hours--but children may trample each other in order to see the many details Brett has crammed into her paintings. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
A fresh Christmas story that begins promisingly but stumbles in the middle when problems are resolved with unbelievable abruptness. The illustrations depict Santa's winter farm with rich color, pattern, and the painstaking detail that children love to pore over. From HORN BOOK 1990, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Decorative side panels showing Santa's elves preparing for Christmas--day by December day--steal the show from this slight story about Teeka, who's trying to get the reindeer ready. They're obstreperous as long as she's stem and dictatorial, but become cooperative with her first gentle word. Brett's precise, glowing illustrations, drawing on Swedish folk art, make this a beguiling Advent calendar of a book. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
