Only YOU Can Save Christmas!: A Help-the-Elf Adventure

by Adam Wallace, Garth Bruner (Illustrator)

Overview

It's Christmas Eve, and Santa's head elf needs YOUR help in this fun, interactive picture book from the New York Times bestselling author of How to Catch an Elf!

It's almost Christmas, and everything at the North Pole is going according to plan...until the head elf discovers that Santa doesn't have a present ready for Mrs. Claus! Time is running out, and you're the only one who can help. But you'll have to honk, whistle, wiggle, and shake to make things turn out all right. Children and parents will love sharing this zany interactive Christmas story year after year.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781492641360
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	10/03/2017
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	254,586
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 9.60(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	5 - 10 Years

About the Author

Adam Wallace is a children's writer and cartoonist living in Australia. He is the author of the New York Times bestselling How to Catch series and The Holiday Heroes Save Christmas.

Editorial Reviews

09/04/2017
Wallace moves from hunting Santa’s helpers in How to Catch an Elf to giving one of them an assist in this irreverent holiday romp. After Wink Silverbells, one of the elves, discovers what he believes is a list of items Santa meant to give Mrs. Claus, he asks for readers’ help in gathering them. The gifts are straight out of “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” and finding swans a-swimming at the North Pole isn’t easy. Some replacements are necessary—turtles instead of turtle doves, four birds with phones who “text more than they call”—and readers assist by making noise (honking to summon geese, yodeling to alert milkmaids) and dancing (“More butt wiggling!”). Bruner’s cartoons of selfie-snapping penguins, stereotypically French hens (one’s decked out to look like Napoleon), and assorted lords and ladies add to the fun. And like the best parties, this one ends with lots of dancing. Ages 5–10. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"Wallace moves from hunting Santa's helpers in How to Catch an Elf to giving one of them an assist in this irreverent holiday romp...Bruner's cartoons of selfie-snapping penguins, stereotypically French hens (one's decked out to look like Napoleon), and assorted lords and ladies add to the fun. And like the best parties, this one ends with lots of dancing." - Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

10/01/2017
PreS-Gr 2—It's the day before Christmas, and head elf Wink Silverbells is thrown into a panic when he discovers what he thinks is a list of presents that Santa wants to give his wife. Wink begins gathering the gifts, starting with a partridge in a pear tree, and occasionally improvising, as with five donuts standing in for five golden rings. Wink addresses readers directly with directions to yodel or dance in order to attract the appropriate items on the list. Wink gathers everything, only to be told gently by Santa that this is in fact a song, not a gift list. Wink seems satisfied, but readers may feel a sense of forced jollity as they are exhorted to keep partying with the dancing ladies and leaping lords. Cartoon illustrations and speech bubbles against a white background depict a host of North Pole and Christmas carol denizens, only a very few of whom are people of color. VERDICT This book—like the elf—tries too hard to drum up enthusiasm, with lackluster results.—Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public Library

School Library Journal

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