The Three Wishes: A Christmas Story

by Alan Snow

Overview

From bestselling children's author and illustrator Alan Snow comes the perfect Father Christmas origin story

A beautiful, fresh take on a classic tale, once read it will become a family Christmas tradition forever.

A beautifully-told and stunningly-illustrated Father Christmas origin story.

Coming together like a perfect festive jigsaw, this story explains all of the traditions and myths around Santa Claus, from how he travels around the world in one night, how his sleigh and reindeer can fly, and why he leaves presents, to the origins of his red coat.

A young boy is herding his family’s reindeer when they are drawn into a mysterious cave. The cave is the holder of eternal summer, looked after by three strange characters – a wooden creature, a bird and a fish. Once entered, the cave cannot be left without time in the outside world standing still. In his sadness at not being able to leave, the boy is granted three wishes and chooses freedom, happiness and time. He is told that they will all be granted – eventually.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781843655114
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	09/19/2023
Pages:	48
Product dimensions:	8.38(w) x 10.62(h) x 0.12(d)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Alan Snow is an award-winning children’s book illustrator and designer who has worked on more than 160 books. His novel, Here Be Monsters (OUP, 2005), was made into an animated film, The Boxtrolls, which spent several weeks at the top of the UK box office in 2015. Alan has won numerous awards for his work as a children’s book illustrator as well as for design and computer animation.

Editorial Reviews

11/01/2020

K-Gr 3—In this Nordic origin story of Santa Claus, a young boy, although afraid of the dark, is tasked with caring for the family deer during the long winter nights. He loses the deer and, frightened and cold, falls asleep in the snow, only to be awakened by deer bells that lead him to an underground world of endless summer. He can never leave but is granted three wishes. He asks for freedom, happiness, and time. Eventually he is allowed to visit his family, who remain asleep during his visit. He leaves them small gifts. Year after year he returns with gifts and his family leave him things in return: warm food, a red and white fur outfit. His companions in the underworld also give him a gift: a flying sled pulled by a reindeer. Bright, detailed folk art accompanies this alternate version of gift-giving, but the cheerful intentions are often overwhelmed by the darker elements, such as separation from family and the inability to return home. VERDICT An unusual view of St. Nick, this tale may be disturbing for young children.—Eva Elisabeth VonAncken, formerly at Trinity-Pawling Sch., Pawling, NY

School Library Journal

2020-08-18
An unusual origin story for Santa Claus.

“Long, long ago in the very north a group of people lived with the reindeer.” Snow never states that the nomadic people in his story are Sami, but he does nothing to keep readers from making the association. The story relates how, one winter solstice, the main character, an unnamed boy, discovers the family’s precious reindeer are missing. He goes out into the snow to find them, following them into a cave that leads deep underground to a magical land of Summer. It’s guarded by three creatures who tell the boy he may never return to his home but who grant him three wishes. He asks for freedom, happiness, and time—experiencing them once each year when he is permitted to return to his family and their clan, who lie in suspended animation during his visit. Each year he leaves gifts, even decorating the inside of their lodge. One year, a guardian of Summer gives him a feather that will enable his reindeer to fly, and on another, anticipating his visit, his family leaves him a red suit trimmed in white. It’s all very clever, but in borrowing the traditional habits of the Sami and failing to clarify that his mythmaking is original, Snow risks clouding many readers’ understanding of a real, extant, and marginalized culture. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.5-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at 68.6% of actual size.)

A lump of coal for this one. (Picture book. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews