The Christmas Feast

In this droll spin on the prey-outwitting-predator premise, Fox snatches Turkey to be a Christmas feast for him and his burrowmates, Wolf and Weasel. The bossy bird immediately takes charge, insisting that they fatten her up before eating her ("Good grief, everybody knows that! Was this their first Christmas? Was this their first feast?" Dargent writes). Ashamed, the three friends meekly follow Turkey's orders, and the quartet gets on splendidly until Christmas Eve, when she unnerves her new friends by slyly asking how they intend to cook her. "I would like to be flambéed," she announces before giving her panicked friends an out, suggesting that they fatten her up until next Christmas, when the feast will be "even better." Le Huche's snappy pictures capture the brood's lopsided dynamics with panache, right up to a final image: of Turkey reading The Best Recipes for Stuffed Wolves, Foxes, and Weasels. Ages 4-8. (Aug.)