As we head into the holiday season, if you are looking for a way to introduce Santa Claus to your little one, I have found a Christmas gem by Marla Frazee. Marla (who is a two-time Caldecott honoree and the illustrator of the popular Clementine series) has totally and wonderfully captured the fantasy of Santa Claus. We see Santa's warehouse full of toys on three-story-high shelves, his wall of wrapping paper, his tiny filing cabinets filled with post-it sized notes about children he will be choosing gifts for.... We see Santa testing the pogo stick and the bubbles... We see him in his giant billowing boxers shorts of all sorts of hilarious patterns... And, as my toddler likes to point out, his "Coffee cup!" is everywhere (it starts with one and by the end he has about twenty of them).
The text is actually not particularly stunning, but we can forgive that because we can have so much fun with the pictures. And hey, this text is introducing my toddler to the phrase "99.9% of the time" (this is how often Santa correctly matches the exactly right toy to the exactly right child).
This book is definitely a hit--- Eliza requested this book twice tonight, saying "More Claus!" the second time.
So, anyway, just wanted to recommend this one. I noticed it's on sale at Amazon for $12! Bargain!