(4) K-3 Illustrated by Lorna Balian & Lecia Balian. Margie's big brother, Arthur, says Santa Claus is a "big fat humbug." He sets a trap for Santa, and the children wait by the fireplace. In the humorous wordless pages that follow, the pictures show Arthur asleep while Santa fills the stockings and shares his milk and cookies with Margie. The newly colorized illustrations have a synthetic-looking quality.

Reviewer: Patricia Riley

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Lorna Balian & Lecia Balian. Young Patrick describes his new "Aminal"--"round and green and blinky-eyed"--to a friend, who pictures an alienlike creature, which she describes to another friend, who imagines an even stranger beast, etc. Readers will enjoy the telephone-game-like premise and the payoff--Patrick's "Aminal" is a turtle--but the re-colored cartoony renderings of the children are synthetic-looking to the point of cheesiness.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Lorna Balian & Lecia Balian. Too lazy to perform the chores required to keep them warm and fed, a girl and her grandmother try to bully a leprechaun into revealing where he hid his treasure; he in turn tricks them into doing their work. The illustrations, which feature pleasantly traditional-looking art superimposed onto hyper-realistic backgrounds, detract from this otherwise satisfying tale of comeuppance.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann

(3) K-3 While Granny searches for eggs to decorate for Easter, the Rabbit children become convinced that their father is the Easter Bunny. The parallel stories eventually intersect on Easter morning, with happy outcomes for all. A humorous text and detailed but uncluttered pastel illustrations work together to propel the above- and below-ground stories and keep the reader engaged.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano

(4) PS Hazel the mouse goes to visit her mother, who's out visiting her mother, who's out visiting her mother, and so on--until the last mouse encounters a menacing cat and all flee, meeting up with one another along the way. Delicate line drawings of Potteresque mice and woodland flora decorate this slight story, here reissued in a small, square gift edition.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano

(3) K-3 This warm-hearted, conversational story profiles a little witch who looks the part--black pointy hat, black pointy shoes, black cat, red pointy nose, etc.--but can't get her magic to work. Friendly ink drawings in black, red, and yellow show the witch finally admitting defeat and taking off her witchy attire (including a mask) to reveal herself as a little girl playing dress-up.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann