A Christmas Story

A jaded white Santa closes down his toy-making shop and retires his reindeer as consumerism consumes Christmas joy, requiring him to shop at big box stores. But a chance meeting with a white six-year-old named Timmy, who has a “stay-at-home mom and a working-class dad,” helps remind Santa of the true spirit of Christmas: “to remember how to give and remember how to believe.” Stockland offers a refreshing representation of celebrating Christmas while living in financial precarity, while maintaining the upbeat rhyme of Clement C. Moore’s “A Visit from St. Nicholas”: “Santa was coming, or so we thought;/ To deliver the holiday cheer that he bought./ From the Walmarts, and K-Marts, and Targets galore;/ Even Santa couldn’t help but just shop at the store.” Shahbazi and Wood offer digital spot art resembling video game characters. The narrative feels slightly didactic, and a plot twist is more confusing than clarifying, but the comedic contemporary trappings and earnest message nevertheless ring true. Ages 5–9. (Self-published)