Fletcher and the Snowflake Christmas (Fletcher the Fox)

PreS-Gr 2—Julia Rawlinson's the young fox, Fletcher, is back in a third tale (Greenwillow, 2010) that revolves around the seasons. Now it is winter—Christmas, in fact. The rabbit family has moved and Fletcher worries that Santa Claus won't know their new address. He and other woodland creatures make arrow signs with sticks pointing to the rabbits' home. However, a snowfall obscures them. Is all lost? Of course not! Tiphanie Beeke's soft-edged pastel illustrations have been fancied up a bit with limited animation that goes nicely with Katherine Kellgren's gentle and expressive reading of the story. She creates unique voices for each character, and original lilting background music enhances the narration. Read-along captions are optional. There's also a nice segment, longer than the book itself, featuring two animators who demonstrate how the book was animated. They walk viewers through storyboards and PhotoShop in a way that is sure to fascinate young artists and/or computer enthusiasts and expands the possible uses of the program. A sweet holiday treat.— Teresa Bateman, Brigadoon Elementary, Federal Way, WA

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