266. How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney?

How Does Santa Go Down The Chimney? Mac Barnett. Illustrated by Jon Klassen. 2023. [September] 33 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: How does he do it? How does it work? Does he cinch up his belt? Or shrink himself down to the size of a mouse? Or stretch out like taffy and step in one leg at a time? Maybe Santa can turn into fire! But probably not. Does he go headfirst? Or feetfirst? Or neither?

Premise/plot: What you see is what you get. This book asks (repetitively) how does Santa go down the chimney? It creatively approaches this age-old question in a silly and exuberant way.

My thoughts: This book borrows heavily from Christmas Eve on Sesame Street. I jest. Mostly. This one doesn't feature a grouch-like grinch out to ruin children's lives. But it does take a more Kermit-like approach to the question. Does it answer it? No. Of course not. But it creatively brainstorms dozens (upon dozens) of possibilities. It then moves on to other legitimate questions. (But not the elephant in the room question of if he exists.)

This book isn't illustrated in your bright, bold, Christmasy tones.

 I'm curious how children would respond to this one. I liked it fine as an adult. I'm not a huge fan of this creative team. I could take or leave Barnett and Klassen's works. I do think they can be overrated. But I liked this one fine.

© 2023 Becky Laney of Young Readers