Letters from the North Pole: With Five Letters from Santa Claus to Pull Out and Read

While letters to Santa are a holiday staple, legitimate letters from Santa are much rarer. A few are nevertheless on display in this nifty novelty countdown book. With 12 days left till Christmas, five kids from various countries each send a note to the North Pole describing an imagined gift they’d like to receive, and asking the big guy a question about his job. In turn, Santa, portrayed with pale skin, sends each child a neatly typed response on workshop letterhead, accompanied by a patented design for the child’s requested item (e.g, “remote control parrot”). Readers can view these replies up close when they remove them from airmail envelopes bearing intricate stamps, postmarks, and addresses. The air of magic wafting through the perky rhyming text and old-fashioned visuals may well spark the creativity of some young inventors. Characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 3–6. (Oct.)