by Dan Murphy (Author) Julia Iredale (Illustrator)
From Parks and Recreation star Aubrey Plaza and creative partner Dan Murphy comes the long lost tale of the Christmas Witch, Santa Claus's much misunderstood twin sister.
Gather 'round the fire to hear a Christmas legend that has never been told before...until now. Each year a mysterious figure sweeps into town, leaving behind strange gifts in the night. No, not Santa Claus, but his sister... The Christmas Witch. Her story begins many, many years ago when her brother was torn away from her as a child. Raised alone by a witch of the woods, Kristtōrn's powers of magic grew, as did her temper.
Determined to find her long lost twin, she set out on a perilous journey across oceans to find him. But what she found instead was a deep-seated fear of her powers and a confrontation that would leave the fate of Christmas hanging in the balance. From award-winning producer and actress Aubrey Plaza and her creative partner Dan Murphy comes a holiday story unlike any told before. With all the richness of classic folklore, they've woven a tale of bravery, love and magic. Whatever you thought you knew about Christmas...think again.
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Copper-haired infants abandoned in the Black Forest come to disparate ends in this "forgotten" dark myth. Though young Kristtörn and Kristoffer share the "gift of swiftness" and a life in the woods, the arrival of a cinnamon bun-toting Danish couple--the Kringles--ends with pastry-intent Kristoffer abandoning his sister, who is subsequently taken in by the Yule Witch Lutzelfrau. While Kristoffer learns his adoptive woodcutter father's trade and internalizes "a strong sense of duty and hard work," Kristtörn lives "a wild, carefree life in the forest," learning magic but proving mercurial. When disregarding Lutzelfrau's counsel ends in a flight to the South Pole, Kristtörn takes up a seasonal search for her North Pole-dwelling twin. Employing fairy tale diction, producer Murphy and actor Plaza meld pagan and Christian elements into blocks of text elevated through Iredale's moody folk art. Though the story upholds folktales' neither-here-nor-there ethics, an exploration of male privilege ends up punishing the temperamental female protagonist, undercutting the spooky seasonal telling. All characters read as white. Ages 5-8. (Oct.)
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