A CLEVER BEATRICE CHRISTMAS

That quick-witted girl with the flyaway golden hair returns for her third original tale set a century ago in a northwoods logging community. When Beatrice meets three new friends from the big city of Montreal, she tells them, in her confident manner, all about Père Noël. To counteract the disbelief of her new friends, she promises to bring them a bell from Père Noël’s sleigh, a button from his cape and a curl from his beard. Beatrice waits up for Père Noël on Christmas Eve and handles him in her own inventive way, snipping off each of the three promised items of proof with plausible reasons for her acquisitions. Père Noël is a resplendent figure in white robes who shows his wise understanding of little girls. Solomon’s carefully researched watercolor illustrations show how Beatrice and her mother celebrate their holiday with French-Canadian traditions such as a homemade Bûche de Noël and an outdoor Christmas Eve feast before midnight mass. The old-fashioned cadences of the story and the muted, folk-art style of the illustrations complement each other perfectly in another winning entry in this clever and original series. (Picture book. 4-8)