SILENT NIGHT

'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring—except for a small dog with a big mouth. Turner's humorously titled debut picture book strings together panels of smallish pencil sketches of a family preparing for bed on Christmas Eve and the hyperactive pooch racing about, providing the book's only text: talk bubbles consisting of "yap," "bark," "woof" and, upon Santa's late-night arrival, "grrrr." A roly-poly St. Nick garbed in traditional red adds a splash to mostly cream-colored pages; in a Wizard of Oz–style flourish, the only fully colored spread is that showing the family on Christmas morning by their tree. All ages. (Oct.)