A Clever Beatrice Christmas

by Margaret Willey, Heather M. Solomon (Illustrator)

Overview

On Christmas Day I will bring you a bell from Père Noël's very own sleigh!

That's the promise Beatrice makes when the children from the village ask whether Santa is real or not. Beatrice is, after all, the most clever girl in the whole north woods. But, while she herself is quite certain that Père Noël is real, can she outsmart him in order to prove it? Or will she finally find herself up against someone who is even more clever than she?

A very special Christmas treat by the Charlotte Zolotow Award-winning team who first introduced you to Clever Beatrice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780689870170
Publisher:	Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	10/03/2006
Edition description:	Repackage
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	10.50(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Heather M. Solomon was named a Publishers Weekly Flying Start for Clever Beatrice, winner of the Charlotte Zolotow Award. She is also the illustrator of Clever Beatrice and the Best Little Pony by Margaret Willey and If I Were a Lion by Sarah Weeks. She lives in New Mexico with her husband, daughter, and son, who especially love to share joyous secrets.

Editorial Reviews

Readers who embraced Clever Beatrice (which PW's starred review called "an engaging tale of a sharp-witted heroine's courage") will welcome her back in A Clever Beatrice Christmas by Margaret Willey, illus. by Heather M. Solomon, as she sets out to prove that Pere Noel indeed exists. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Gr 1-3-Beatrice's friends don't believe that P re No'l exists. When they ask how he could possibly brave the cold winds all night, she promises to bring them a button from his cape. Their doubts about his sleigh lead her to promise them a sleigh bell, and, last of all, she pledges to get a curl from his beard. The girl stays up late to meet the old man, and believes she has tricked him into letting her take the tokens, but readers will see that perhaps she is not the only clever one around. Fans of the character will undoubtedly welcome this North Woods tale with its richly colored watercolor illustrations, but libraries without a Beatrice following can safely skip it.-Lisa Falk, Los Angeles Public Library Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

That quick-witted girl with the flyaway golden hair returns for her third original tale set a century ago in a northwoods logging community. When Beatrice meets three new friends from the big city of Montreal, she tells them, in her confident manner, all about Pere Noel. To counteract the disbelief of her new friends, she promises to bring them a bell from Pere Noel's sleigh, a button from his cape and a curl from his beard. Beatrice waits up for Pere Noel on Christmas Eve and handles him in her own inventive way, snipping off each of the three promised items of proof with plausible reasons for her acquisitions. Pere Noel is a resplendent figure in white robes who shows his wise understanding of little girls. Solomon's carefully researched watercolor illustrations show how Beatrice and her mother celebrate their holiday with French-Canadian traditions such as a homemade Buche de Noel and an outdoor Christmas Eve feast before midnight mass. The old-fashioned cadences of the story and the muted, folk-art style of the illustrations complement each other perfectly in another winning entry in this clever and original series. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews