The Night Before Christmas: A Visit from St. Nicholas

Spiffy acrylic paintings of a wintry urban landscape dotted with tangy candy-colored buildings give the classic poem some modern zip. The artist's whimsy shines in an ""Identification Chart: How to Recognize Santa!"" and the exploits of the household's black cat (and its white mouse pal). By book's end, even the lone straggler on the holiday tree lot has been touched by Christmas magic. Among the few good contemporary treatments of this poem, Grover's is a winner. All ages. (Oct.)