Dear Santa, Love, Rachel Rosenstein

Rachel belongs to a loving, observant Jewish family--the kind where every Shabbat, "her friends and family passed around the challah and said the same blessings that Papa Murray said as a child." But when Christmas comes around, Rachel wants to be part of the celebration; she "felt like a kid in a candy store with no mouth." Actress Peet and her friend/coauthor Troyer, both newcomers to children's books, handle Rachel's obsession and her family's strong sense of religious identity with equal empathy and humor; as Rachel's mother explains, "Sometimes, no matter how badly we want something, we just have to accept what is." But the story's real inspiration is having disconsolate Rachel run into her Buddhist, Muslim, and Hindi friends all at the same Chinese restaurant on Christmas Day--a lovely and pointed reminder that America is a land of many "great holidays." Ages 3-7. Authors' agents: Joseph Veltre and Allison Cohen, Gersh Agency. (Oct.)

K-Gr 3—Rachel is desperate to celebrate Christmas, even though she and her family are Jewish. Feeling "like a kid in a candy store with no mouth," she secretly develops a scheme to get Santa to visit her home, complete with a letter to the North Pole, homemade decorations, and even a visit to the mall to sit on his lap. When he doesn't show, she is extremely disappointed and is almost too sad to enjoy her family's traditional dinner at a Chinese restaurant, the only place left open. There, she is surprised to find she isn't the only kid not visited by Santa when she meets other classmates who also don't celebrate the season but take pride in their own cultural holidays and traditions. Davenier's illustrations are the highlight of this title. Bright watercolors depict Rachel and her family as a loving group, surrounded by commercial trappings of the season. Unfortunately, while the story attempts to teach pride and celebration in other traditions, it is overshadowed in a final spread that reinforces the idea that Christmas is superior and that "sometimes, no matter how badly we want something, we just have to accept what is." VERDICT Attractive and well-meaning, if not entirely successful.—Brooke Sheets, Los Angeles Public Library