Welcome one and all to our unseasonably jolly post! It’s Mad Martha with you today, bringing you an early Christmas present – Santa Clauses: Short Poems from the North Pole by Bob Raczka and illustrated by Chuck Groenink! Despite having verbal first names in common, these two clever blokes have combined their talents to create an eye-soothing Christmas miracle of a picture book, filled with haiku to enhance the poetical pleasure of your preparations for the big, exciting, big, stressful, exciting, big celebration that is Christmas.
The book opens on December 1st, with a haiku-ish weather report accompanied by Santa (in casual attire) amidst a snowstorm of just-delivered mail. From there we are treated to a haiku a day, covering all the bustle and administrational organisation that goes on at the North Pole in preparation for that night of nights. Who would have thought that Santa himself is subjected to the trifling annoyances of the season, such as untangling festive lights and replacing faulty bulbs? Other poems inform us that Santa and his Northern folk also partake of the more joyful traditions of the season, including stringing popcorn garlands and sharing favourite Christmas stories beside the fire (or in the barn!).
Advent calendar
of haiku will be our new
yearly tradition
As lovers of haiku, we around the shelf were overjoyed to find this beuatiful new rendering of the familiar lead-up to Christmas type of book. It’s such a simple idea and a fantastic way to introduce children to this form of poetry. I suspect parents will enjoy it also, given that it provides a nice break from having to read rhyming stories about Santa repeatedly from September onwards! So the haiku format was always going to be a winner for us, but the icing on the cake is the amazing quality of illustration that Chuck Groenink has achieved. The pictures are soft and inviting and but still reflect the mystery and anticipation of the season. For someone living in the (blistering) Southern Hemisphere, Christmasy books that emphasise the snowiness that we don’t experience here can often feel a little bit annoyingly exclusive, but Groenink’s imagery conveys the comfort of familiar family traditions and the atmosphere of a little community coming together drew us in as something we could connect with, rather than emphasising our lack of cold at Christmas time.
We at the shelf love this book so much that we are going to buy it in hardcover and begin a new pre-Christmas advent ritual of reading it in the run-up to Christmas. Much more satisfying than that Elf on the Shelf business. Does anyone else find that Elf a little bit disturbing? Like a little malevolent minion watching all that’s going on…with his eyes…always watching. It’s all a bit too 1984 for me (the book, not the period in history). We suggest that you do the same and bring a bit of haiku into the Christmas season.
Santa Clauses: Short Poems from the North Pole is released on September 1st, so you have plenty of time to acquire it before December!
Cheerio my dears,
Mad Martha
*I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review*
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| The Bookshelf Gargoyle |
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| Books, Reading, Writing |
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The Bookshelf Gargoyle 
What a grand idea! Thanks for sharing!!
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Season’s greetings…congratulations you are the first blogger to remind me of Christmas…now I won’t look silly with my tinsel hat that Ilike to wear.
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Given that the “season” is newly spring over here, allow me to accompany your greeting with a round of hay fever induced sneezing. A tinsel hat sounds a bit fancy – I hope it’s sturdy enough to support a festive bauble or two.
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I am game! Love Haiku and the art on this looks too inviting to resist! Thanks for sharing a great find! Thanks for sharing on KidLitBlogHop!
-Reshama
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It is inviting. In fact, I think I’m going to invite myself to the North Pole for real this year!
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This is certainly a unique selection! It does sound like a pretty cool concept and I really like the style of illustration as well. The elf on the shelf is banned from our household (as are American Girl dolls). lol Thanks for sharing in the Kid Lit Blog Hop. 🙂
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Thanks for dropping by! That elf, hey…I recently saw a spoof book called The Dwarf in the Drawer (or something like that) which looked pretty funny 😀
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