ONCE UPON A CHRISTMAS

The Three Bears invite other fairy-tale characters to a Christmas Eve celebration and end up with their paws full.

All the Christmas festivities are set up for the guests’ enjoyment, but the party quickly becomes a mess. Rapunzel’s hair gets wrapped around the tree, and then she stumbles, knocking the wind out of Jack Frost, which causes a mighty, destructive gust. The squall is so powerful that Santa’s sleigh, in the air over the other side of the woods, is pulled to the ground and crashes into Baby Bear Lagoon. Sopping wet, Santa goes looking for help, flashlight in hand, and finds the Bears’ cottage. He is helping himself to Papa Bear’s clothes when he discovers there is a crowd, and they are all happy to come to his rescue. Working together, they make a plan and save Santa’s sleigh, the presents, and Christmas. Santa stays at the party a while before going off to deliver presents. Children familiar with the characters, like the Three Little Pigs and Red Riding Hood, will get a kick out of pointing them out in the bright, cartoonlike illustrations, which are effective in their storytelling despite being a bit garish. But despite nods to the fairy-tale originals, the actual plot is something of a bust. Santa is White, and the human and elf characters are fairly diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

This will be fun for a percentage of preschoolers; that’s about it.