The Night Before Christmas

Intricate and elegant cut-paper designs enliven Moore's poem with black silhouetted figures, peek-through pages and one glorious pop-up at the end. Readers will be captivated by the striking contrasts: dark human and animal figures and a few dramatic splashes of red, gold and green playing against creamy backgrounds of freshly fallen snow and bright December moonlight. Finely rendered and fun-to-spot details—e.g., mice playing in the attic—will also keep readers poring over this book's sturdy pages. Ages 4-up. (Oct.)