The Night Before Christmas

In Bradley’s color-saturated reworking of Clement C. Moore’s classic poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” an awakened child narrator heads downstairs to “seek out the truth and put things to right” about Santa Claus. At story’s start, a darkened living room is illuminated by a tree, a garlanded fireplace, and an ornamented wreath. Upstairs, four children, portrayed with brown skin, slumber “all nested close, snug tight in our bed,” the protagonist dreaming of elves engaging with a pink landscape filled with lollipops. After Santa’s arrival wakes the youth, a subsequent encounter reveals the figure, “his cheeks like hot cocoa,” whose presence offers a moment of happy kinship: “Who’d imagine that Santa could look just like me.” Though character designs can feel inconsistent, jovial reworked lines and chalky-hued digital illustrations leave a warm impression throughout. Characters are portrayed with arrayed skin tones and detailed hair textures. Ages 4–8. (Sept.)