Letters to Never Send Santa: Confessions, Complaints, and Outlandish Requests from the Files of St. Nick
by David Griswold; illus. by Luis San Vicente
Primary    Moonshower/Bushel & Peck    64 pp.
9/24    9781638192046    $18.99

Santa has “gathered the strangest and worst” letters he’s received. More than twenty letters in verse beg, threaten, complain, bargain, and ask for homework help. “(P.S. It’s due tomorrow).” Phoebe wants a unicorn: “Don’t tell me you can’t. Don’t say they’re not real. / If reindeer can fly, I think you can deal.” There’s a letter from “The Parents” stating, “We break our backs to make this work / And YOU get all the credit.” “The Committee for Elvish Rights” has demands, “Chris from Accounting” has questions, and a T. rex asks, “can u pleez bring the dinoz bak?” The energetic digital collage illustrations play up the poems’ outrageous absurdity.

From the ">November/December 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.