Letters to Never Send Santa: Confessions, Complaints, and Outlandish Requests from the Files of St. Nick

Santa’s ho-ho-ho turns harumph-harumph-harumph in the introduction to this cautionary collection of the most egregious missives he’s received. Kicking off with rhyming quatrains, Santa gathers “the strangest and worst of these letters/ To highlight what you and your friends should resist.” In the correspondence that follows, one child’s request for a unicorn and another’s for emergency homework-help sit alongside gripes from weary parents and frustrated employees (“Our dormitory’s cold and bare./ We need vacations, dental care” note Santa’s elves). San Vicente’s images, digitally collaged with public domain works, visually introduce most of the individual letter-writers and provide each entry with a distinct typeface and illustration style. It’s a work that readers will want to pore over before drafting their own notes to St. Nick. Human characters are portrayed with various skin tones, some fanciful. Ages 8–11. (Sept.)