THE SANTA SECRET

Wallace and Björkman join forces again for their second easy-reader collaboration, this time with a Christmas theme. The text of this longer reader is divided into short chapters that help to increase the suspense as the holiday draws near. The family who is preparing for Christmas consists of two parents, two sons and a daughter named Kari, who is the middle child. She answers her parents’ repeated requests for her gift list with the same reply, “Santa knows what I want.” Both parents and brothers try to pry her wishes out of her to no avail, and she receives some nice but traditional gifts on Christmas morning. As the father starts to build a fire in the fireplace, the family dog hears scratching from the chimney. Just in the nick of time a soot-covered kitten is discovered: the answer to Kari’s secret Christmas wish. The plot is rather pedestrian, though Björkman’s distinctive watercolor-and-ink illustrations in his loose, flowing style add some pizzazz, as does the presence of the faithful family dog, a bloodhound named D.B. (Easy reader. 6-8)