Herbie's Secret Santa: With Audio Recording

by Petra Mathers, Petra Mathers (Illustrator)

Overview

Celebrate the holidays with Lottie and Herbie!

Dressed as Santa and humming a tune, Herbie is ready for Christmas. But when he does something bad -- and wishes he could take it back -- the holidays don't feel very happy. Children everywhere will sympathize with Herbie in Petra Mathers's new picture book, which shows how easy it is to make a mistake...and how hard it is to say you're sorry.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481442787
Publisher:	Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	03/03/2015
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
File size:	36 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Petra Mathers (1945–2024) was the author and illustrator of many picture books, including her beloved Lottie series. Lottie’s New Beach Towel was Book of the Year for Parenting Magazine, and Lottie’s New Friend was named a New York Times Best Illustrated Book and won the Silver Medal from the New York Society of Illustrators. Petra and her husband, author and photographer Michael Mathers, lived in Astoria, Oregon.

Editorial Reviews

With this fourth entry in her Lottie and Herbie series, Mathers (A Cake for Herbie, 2000, etc.) explores the concepts of a guilty conscience and the difficulty of apologizing within an amusing, nontraditional Christmas story. Watercolor panel illustrations in her charming naïve style introduce the animal characters of Lottie and Herbie’s town of Oysterville, with everyone full of holiday good will and involved in Christmas preparations. Herbie the duck and Lottie the hen stop by Ali Baba’s Bakery, where Herbie can’t resist the temptation of a frosted Santa cookie, and his stolen treat sticks in his throat, both literally and figuratively. In her witty, understated text, Mathers deftly shows how Herbie is sick with remorse and sure that everyone knows about the theft, and then shows how hard it is to apologize to those whose trust has been violated. The bakers and Lottie forgive Herbie his trespass and are willing to remain his friends, and in a calm, satisfying conclusion, Herbie gives Lottie a Christmas gift of a handmade gold star that brightens up a cloudy day, just like a warm friendship. In addition to working well as a different sort of Christmas story, this cautionary tale will also serve to ward off any child’s remote idea of shoplifting or even tasting an unauthorized bite of the merchandise. (Picture book. 3-7)

Kirkus Reviews