The Watson sisters reassemble the fox cast of their beloved Father Fox's Pennyrhymes to celebrate an old-fashioned Christmas, the sort Mother Goose might have conjured had she lived in New England. Full-page compositions framed in white borders, panel and spot art vary the pacing, decked in a holiday palette of reds and greens—not the shiny colors of ornaments, but the calm, subtle hues of folk art. The individual foxes, meanwhile, are as full of personality as ever. The rhymes can be read singly or as one loosely joined narrative. From Father Fox arriving home "with sweets in my pockets & holes in my socks" and the cubs making a snow horse ("Up into the saddle/ Holding tight to your mane/ I'll gallop to the North Pole/ & come right back again") to wishing on the "first star I see tonight" for "peace & love & joy," this book distills the essence of the season's many pleasures. Ages 4-8. (Oct.)
