Kid Christmas: Of the Claus Brothers Toy Shop

Empathy, kindness, and a good bit of magic spark Litchfield’s familial Santa Claus origin story. Born into the Claus Brothers clan of talented toymakers, pale-skinned young Nicky Claus is poised to go into the family business, and soon starts working the counter. As Nicky handles the shop’s customers, mustachioed uncles Hanz, Louis, and Levi keep busy in a mysterious workshop behind an off-limits door. Nicky’s Christmas Eve encounter with a group of unhoused children, portrayed with various skin tones and living in a firefly-lit tunnel, results in a vow to give every child in the city a present “so they could feel happy, even if it was for just one day.” And with assists from his uncles—who happen to have recently built a reindeer-propelled flying sleigh—and from one of the children, a chimney sweep, toy delivery via chimney is born. Though the book’s ending raises unanswered questions around the immediate fate of the children and the book’s connections to traditional lore, digital art suggesting a Dickensian era glows with festive light emitted from the old-timey shop window and jarred-firefly lamps as snowflakes fall. Ages 4–7. (Oct.)