CHRISTMAS EVE WITH MRS. CLAUS

Someone’s in the kitchen with Mrs. Claus, cooking up Christmas Eve goodies for the reindeer, Santa’s helpers and old St. Nick himself.

This lift-the-flap book has sturdy cardboard pages and a square format; it opens to double-page spreads with expansive scenes of Mrs. Claus in the kitchen. In this story, Mr. and Mrs. Claus are polar bears, and Santa’s helpers are animals such as a raccoon, a fox, squirrels and mice. Mrs. Claus, who seems to be an absent-minded sort of bear, keeps forgetting where she has stored the ingredients for the special treats she is baking. Each spread asks readers to find a missing item such as a jar of honey, chocolate chips or a bowl of popcorn. Lots of mice helpers are hiding under the flaps, sometimes aiding in the holiday preparations and sometimes digging into Christmas treats such as candy canes or nuts. The final page finds Mr. and Mrs. Claus wearing red-and-green–striped scarves that the busy animals have been knitting. Pleasant illustrations in watercolor and pencil show smiling bears and cheerful animals earnestly engaged in their Christmas Eve preparations.

A sweet Christmas treat for little ones just getting used to a real story as well as their slightly older siblings.