(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