Dear Santa, Love, Rachel Rosenstein

Rachel belongs to a loving, observant Jewish family—the kind where every Shabbat, “her friends and family passed around the challah and said the same blessings that Papa Murray [her grandfather] said as a child.” But when Christmas comes around, Rachel wants to be part of the celebration; she “felt like a kid in a candy store with no mouth.” Actress Peet and her friend/coauthor Troyer, both newcomers to children’s books, handle Rachel’s obsession and her family’s strong sense of religious identity with equal empathy and humor; as Rachel’s mother explains, “Sometimes, no matter how badly we want something, we just have to accept what is.” But the story’s real inspiration is having disconsolate Rachel run into her Buddhist, Muslim, and Hindi friends all at the same Chinese restaurant on Christmas Day—a lovely and pointed reminder that America is a land of many “great holidays.” Ages 3–7. Authors’ agents: Joseph Veltre and Allison Cohen, Gersh Agency. (Oct.)