This is a great Christmas book! It is too bad it is out of print. I can remember taking it with me to 3rd grade for sharing. I have read it every Christmas! It is fun and snappy, giving Santa and his raindeer plenty of personality. This is a pillar of our Christmas book collection because it is more than your average Christmas story.

If you are able to find this book it is well worth your while. I have been read the story every Christmas that I can clearly remember and it invokes great nostalgia. Children will love Alex, Santa, Teddy, and Jeremyinstead of Rudolph!!(: So will all other ages. The illustrations are great; some are in black and white, the rest are color and the dialogue is very funny! "Don't strp on the grass!!! Don't step on the grass!!" Have a blast reading a Christmas story that will never stay on your shelf!

I borrowed this book from my school library, since I was doing an Authorshare project for English. I was a bit surprised when I read this book, because the poetry was GREAT!!! She did some poems from a ghost's point of view, and they were funny! I laughed out loud when I read one entitled, "The Grammatical Witch". It talked about a student talking about how they saw a witch, but the teacher corrects him; according to her, it wasn't a WHICH, it was a WHO. I really enjoyed the poetry in this book and reccomend it to others.

My daughter and I love this beautiful story. The illustrations are very calming and pleasing to the eye, the story has a consistant, assuring flow of the grandmother's love of her grandchild as well as her love for nature. Not only does it bring back warm childhood memories for me, it is an inspiration to my future as a grandmother.

Hobie is one of my favorite characters of all time. I am 22 and haved loved this book since I was a little kid. My copy is very stained from being dropped in the water so many times while I was reading in the tub. No matter what your age, you must read this book. Absolutely classic entertainment--a great book to read out loud to your kids on a trip, or whenever. I LOVE THIS BOOK!!! Much better than 13 Ways to Sink a Sub, Gilson's more well-known book.

This is a story for children who love melancholy tales such as Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid or The Little Match Girl. A mermaid is a free creature who is not meant to be tamed. This tale is about a man who captures a mermaid because he loves her. Any more information than that would ruin the story. The artwork is haunting, as is the story. A must have for anyone who loves fairy tales.

This is an absolutely enchanting book! Ms. Primavera's rich, glowing illustrations are the perfect compliment to the warm tale woven by Ms. Buckley. The story centers around three monks who have taken a vow of silence and who live together in an old monastery by the sea. One night they find a kite a local child has left in their tree. The three monks fly the kite in the moonlight, and each man silently reminisces about his own happy childhood, long since past. This is a sweet, simple story, one that sparks the imagination and offers the comforting notion that some of childhood's pleasures need never end

Moe the Dog in Tropical Paradise is a wonderful book. I liked it because Moe uses his imagination to find something to do over the weekend. He pretends to be in a tropical paradise. If you can't go there in real life you can be like Moe and pretend.
He shares his great ideas with his friend. I like to share my ideas with my friends too.

Michelle Anderson

Moe the Dog is a wonderful character who makes the most of a bad situation. Sick of winter and the cold, Moe dreams of vacationing in Tahiti but lacks the funds so he takes matters into his own paws! He turns his living room into a Tropical Paradise and invites his friend over to enjoy it with him. They wear sunglasses, drink fruity drinks and lounge on beach chairs. The illustrations truly bring the characters to life and will make you laugh out loud.

It is a wonderful way to show children that problems can often be solved with a little imagination and creativity.

The story leaves Moe planning a trip to Egypt. I can't wait for the next book!

Moe is the kind of friend every child would like to have. Thisis a wonderful book for children. It teaches them to make the bestout of every situation. The bright illustrations draw the reader in. This is a book children will have you read over again and again.

This is a book that will let children look beyond the obvious. It is a picture book with a title that attracts attention and pictures with vibrant colors. The fantasy and realism in the book will keep you involved to see what is going to happen next. The wise little African American girl who is very smart and devoted to her family raised a dragon beyond everyone's doubts. The dragon helped on the family farm until he grew so big that he could no longer stay. She takes him to a dragon-shaped island to be with others, but doesn't return empty-handed. She returns with a wheelbarrow full of dinasaur eggs. The magical beasts know they are in good hands. The focus of the book is if you work hard, you can give substance to what most people think is strictly make-believe.

This book is a must for all dragon lovers and mystical creature fanatics. This fantasizing book is about a young girl who accidentally stumbled onto a gigantic egg that was a cave. Her parents told her to stay away from the egg but of course curiosity got the better of her. Well when this large egg hatches, the young girl's journey and friendship with this mystical flying creature begins.
As the dragon grows, she reads as many books she can about dragons, in order to teach the dragon the ways of dragons. This girl comes to realize that he needs a name so she names him Hank. Well Hank happened to be a fire breathing dragon and well the girls parents where farmers. So they where defiantly a little worried about their crops. We all know that the whether is never perfect but with a dragon those wings and those sharp claws can be quite helpful in planting and to shade and keeping the crops cool on a hot day. It just so happens that the family wasn't able to sell all the corn that the girl and Hank planted. So Hank came up with a plan. He dug a trench around the corn and breathed fire into the trench and the family thought he had lost it. But it turned out that he made the first ever dragon popped popcorn and the family sold it all for a profit.
After a while the girl thought that she and Hank should go to the dragon-shaped landmass in the middle of the ocean. And it turned out that many other dragons lived there. Well it was soon time for her to leave, but before she left Hank had a very special prize for her. It was a wheelbarrow full of rocks! But she soon found out that they weren't rocks, in fact they were dragon eggs! Dragon eggs of all different colors and sizes. And she then knew that just as farming was in her parent's blood that raising dragons was in hers.
This enchanting book was written by: Jerdine Nolen and illustrated by Elise Primavera.

I bought this book for my two year old daughter even though she is way too young for it. Once I read it I had to have it for when she is older. The story is wonderful. A little girl discover her talent is raising Dragons. I love the part where the dragon turns the corn field into popcorn with his fire breath. We have a folkmanis dragon puppet that I intend to usein conjuction with this book when I will read it to my daughter in the future. Be warned that the family in this book uses a type of colloquel speech that is not proper English. If the little girl was ever in an English class she would flunk (example "t'aint rocks, Mother".) If you are looking for a grammer lesson you might want to choose another book. If you are looking for a delightful fantasy that encourages your child's imagination then you have found it.

If you cold live in toyland for two days, would you give up Christmas forever? Auntie Claus is getting ready for Christmas. She has special powers. She has a key that leads to Christmas and a ride on her elevator that can take her any where. Later a spoiled little boy came to the door of Christmas.

BRAVO!! Elise Primavera has again created a modern Christmas classic. The sequel to Auntie Claus is beautifully illustrated and splendidly written. My children have loved all of her books, but these two are their favorites. Merry Christmas, Auntie Claus.

I read this story to my first graders this year, after having read the first Auntie Claus to them. We were all absolutely captivated by the marvelous illustrations, and the story itself is very entertaining. The students were horrified at Chris Kringle's behavior and his desire to be on the Bad Boys and Girls List. They were all relieved by Chris's transformation at the end of the book when he understands the true meaning of Christmas.

As a teacher, I enjoy this book not only because the children are so engrossed by the stories and illustrations, but also because the book sparks a discussion amongst the children of what their focus should really be during the holiday season. They learn valuable morals without realizing it.

Along with the first book, Auntie Claus, this book is a fantastic read-aloud. The true merits of this book were demonstrated when my students hopefully asked if there was a third Auntie Claus book. If you have young children, I highly recommend picking these two books up and making them part of your Christmas tradition. You'll be glad you did.

A nice oversize book, good for reading aloud and showing the pictures to the kids as you go along. These pictures are gorgeous and exciting. But what am I missing here? The story is odd -- it seems to be missing a lot of pages. We know almost nothing about the aunt herself -- what is she like and what does she do, esp. between Christmas and Valentine's Day? It's a wonderful premise, and would make a good animated film, but somebody would have to do a lot of work developing a much more complete storyline. So many things are never explained -- even things in the pictures. For example, what is the smoking thing she's holding on the cover? I did like the "salvation" of Sophie, though. So don't pass it up, because the pictures are just glorious.

My class of first-graders absolutely love this book. They kept begging me to read it to them this past holiday season. The story is wonderfully creative and is very well-told. The illustrations not only are beautiful, but are also very good at helping young children develop the comprehension skill of prediction.

The best part of this book is that, in a very entertaining way, it teaches the value of giving of oneself. My kids are all so pleased when Sophie places herself on the BB&G List to save her brother from not getting any presents. This book has opened discussion in my class on selflessness, a topic foreign to so many young children during this time that they perceive as a gift-receiving extravaganza.

This is a must-have for any primary classroom or home library. Read it to your kids... you'll be glad you did! I loved the story just as much as my class did!

Auntie Claus is an original take on the goings-on at the North Pole each year. Not only do we find out about Santa Claus, but we find out about his whole family and what they do during the rest of year. The story is cute and funny and the illustrations are beautiful and set the tone for the book. The contrast between New York City and the North Pole is wonderful - in both the story and the pictures.

My children loved the book and were on the edge of their seats waiting to see what would next happen to Sophie at each step of the story. Ms. Primavera has really captured the feeling of what it's like to be a child and my children felt like they were at the North Pole with Sophie going through her adventure.