Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #892550 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-24
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 32 pages

From Amazon.com
The comedic team that last explained How Murray Saved Christmas--Simpsons writer Mike Reiss and editorial illustrator David Catrow--returns for another comical yuletide rhyme.

At first glance, their book threatens to be too wacky for its own good, but Reiss quickly saves the tale with fun rhymes and abundant cleverness. Santa Claus suffers from recurring nightmares about getting stuck in a lit chimney ("I smell something cooking. I'm not sure just what. Is it ham? Is it lamb? No, I think it's my butt!"), which clearly points to a case of Santa Claustrophobia. So Doc Holiday wisely prescribes (what else?) a holiday, arranging for St. Nick's Christmas duties to be handled by the April Fool, St. Patrick, the Tooth Fairy, et al. ("There were even a few who weren't so famous, like the Arbor Day Aardvark and Labor Day Amos.") But the well-meaning Doc soon finds that replacing the Big Guy isn't that easy: Cupid attaches long, time-consuming love notes to each present, Columbus on delivery-detail insists on sailing "east to go west, then west to go east," and the Easter Bunny has trouble gift-wrapping ("his paws were too small") so resorts to painting all the presents in pastels.

Fortunately, a tanned, toned Santa Claus returns from Aruba just in time to save the day: "If chimneys are tight, I've got nothing to fear: I lost twenty pounds--nineteen from my rear!" Both kids and adults will enjoy the same humor Reiss showed in Murray, but some of the biggest laughs in the book undoubtedly belong to Catrow's details (including a genius Father Time from 1969, sporting a plastic pick sticking out of his huge gray afro). (Ages 4 to 8) --Paul Hughes

From Publishers Weekly
Simpsons writer Reiss (How Murray Saved Christmas, which Catrow also illustrated) returns with another zany holiday entry. The madcap premise is promising. Santa and all the other seasonal celebrities, from the Groundhog and Cupid to such lesser lights as Labor Day Amos, live in anonymity in a town called Stinky Cigars ("The name is so awful that folks pass right by it"). When a glum Santa needs a vacation (he's having nightmares about getting stuck in a chimney above a blazing fire), his fellow citizens step in with less-than-stellar success. The rhymes may not be as clever or as tight as those in the previous book, but there's some goofy fun to be had. Ages 3-up.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 2-5-Therapist Doc Holiday of the village of Stinky Cigars receives a new patient. Seems Santa has "Claustrophobia" because (as Doc says) "Chimneys are thinner and your thighs are thickening./All those cookies and milk/have gone straight to your rear-." The doc prescribes a stress-relief vacation while the other personified holiday celebs (The Groundhog, Cupid, Saint Pat, Uncle Sam, etc.) try unsuccessfully to pinch-hit. In the nick of time Santa returns ("I just had to show off my abs and my tan"). Zany cartoon illustrations and a wacky high-energy text will grab older kids (and grown-ups) ready for parody.-S. P.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.