Auntie Claus by Elise Primavera

From the Publisher

Auntie Claus is just another eccentric New Yorker—or is she? Young Sophie has often wondered about her unusual great-aunt, Auntie Claus. She lives in penthouse 25C at the Bing Cherry Hotel and is so curioso! After all, Auntie Claus serves Christmas cookies all year long and her tree is always the best-decorated in the city. And then there's her annual "business trip," right around the holidays. This year Sophie is determined to get to the bottom of Auntie Claus's mysterious ways. Put on your mittens and bundle up for an adventure beyond your wildest dreams. Ho, ho, ho!

Publishers Weekly

A healthy dose of holiday magic abounds in a picture book poised to make a big splash. A little bit Auntie Mame, a little bit Coco Chanel, Sophie Kringle's glamorous great-aunt lives in a penthouse atop Manhattan's Bing Cherry Hotel. Auntie Claus disappears every holiday season on a mysterious business trip and, determined to discover her destination, Sophie stows away and follows her. Larded with scrumptious visual foreshadowing, Primavera's hilariously arch gouache and pastel illustrations are the highlight of this merry confection. Ages 4-8. (Oct.) FYI: The author has established a Web site for the book at www.auntieclaus.com, and Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City has chosen Primavera's tale as the theme for its holiday window display. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A grand, if unsubtle, cousin to William Joyce's Santa Calls (1993). Smug little rich girl Sophie Kringle has a great-aunt who lives in high style atop the palatial Bing Cherry Hotel, vacating only for her mysterious annual "business trip" between Halloween and Valentine's Day. One year, Sophie stows away in Auntie Claus's luggage, and ends up at the North Pole, pressed into hard service as an elf. When she catches sight of the Bad-Boys-And-Girls list, and finds her little brother's name on it, she reacts with uncharacteristic, newly mustered compassion, erasing his name and adding her own in it's place; suddenly she's sharing a stage with Auntie, who turns out to be Santa's sister and, having learned that it is better to give than to receive ("the first and final rule," as Auntie calls it), is whisked home just in time for Christmas. Tall and slender in fur-trimmed red, Auntie Claus cuts as elegant a figure amidst the North Pole's snowy bustle as she does in her sparsely appointed New York digs; most of Primavera's expansive scenes are underlit to add an air of mystery, and presided over by looming background figures: Santa, the Statue of Liberty, a huge, moon-faced snowman. A promising bid for holiday bestsellerdom. (Picture book. 6-8)

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