The Wild Christmas Reindeer
by Jan Brett (Author)
Little Teeka thought she had to be firm with the reindeer to get them ready for Santa's important flight, but when her bossy yelling only got their antlers tangled up, she knew she had to try something different.
"Beautifully conceived and finely wrought". -- Booklist (starred review)
"Brett's precise, glowing illustrations, drawing on Swedish folk art, make this a beguiling Advent calendar of a book". -- Kirkus Reviews
"[A] sweet Christmas fantasy that shows Brett at her best". -- Publishers Weekly
"This tale with its humorous close-ups of stubborn reindeer and a sharp child protagonist should prove popular at story hours". -- School Library Journal
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Publishers Weekly
Little Teeka's attempts to train Santa's reindeer for their Christmas ride meet with disaster until she realizes that she needs to work with the animals in a new way. "Tomorrow," she says, "no yelling, no screaming, and no bossing, I promise," and with her patient teaching, on Christmas Eve the "wild reindeer rise up together and carry the sleigh off into the night." Brett's characteristic, richly detailed borders depict the activity at Santa's workshop as each day brings Teeka closer to Christmas. As with The Mitten, Brett makes use of Ukranian motifs—colorful embroidered costumes, festive garlands, carvings and cunning toys decorate every page. The reindeer themselves—sporting names like Lichen, Tundra and Bramble—provide most of the comic action in this sweet Christmas fantasy that shows Brett at her best. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)
Copyright 1990 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission
School Library Journal
In a pristine wonderland set in the Arctic shadow of Santa's Winterfarm, Teeka trains the reindeer for their annual flight. After a week of fussing, she finally decides it is her fault that the reindeer have misbehaved: "I've spent all my time yelling at you, instead of helping. I'm sorry." So then the reindeer, with such nontraditional names as Heather, Lichen, Crag, and Tundra, get with the program and come prancing in just under the wire. Brett uses side panels to show elves preparing the Christmas goodies before December 24, when Santa loads up. Borders of holiday symbols and a calendar countdown decorate each page. Told in a somewhat colloquial language, this tale with its humorous close-ups of stubborn reindeer and a sharp child protagonist should prove popular at story hours—but children may trample each other in order to see the many details Brett has crammed into her paintings.
Copyright 1990 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission
Review quotes
As a child, Jan Brett decided to be an illustrator and spent many hours reading and drawing. She says, "I remember the special quiet of rainy days when I felt that I could enter the pages of my beautiful picture books. Now I try to recreate that feeling of believing that the imaginary place I'm drawing really exists. The detail in my work helps to convince me, and I hope others as well, that such places might be real."
As a student at the Boston Museum School, she spent hours in the Museum of Fine Arts. "It was overwhelming to see the room-size landscapes and towering stone sculptures, and then moments later to refocus on delicately embroidered kimonos and ancient porcelain," she says. "I'm delighted and surprised when fragments of these beautiful images come back to me in my painting."
Travel is also a constant inspiration. Together with her husband, Joe Hearne, who is a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Jan visits many different countries where she researches the architecture and costumes that appear in her work. "From cave paintings to Norwegian sleighs, to Japanese gardens, I study the traditions of the many countries I visit and use them as a starting point for my children's books."
Christmas stories
Christmas
Reindeer
Santa Claus
