Elves on Strike
Nicola Edwards and Pauline Gregory
Little Tiger

It’s Christmas Eve and trouble is brewing in Santa’s workshop. Tired of working their fingers off the toy-making elves decide to stage a walk out. This sets off a concatenation of walk outs from the reindeer-training elves, the gift wrappers, the present deliverers and the mailroom staff. With just one little elf remaining a note flutters into the workshop. Having read that it’s a special plea from the sister of a child who is very sad,

the elf takes it to show Santa and he calls a meeting of all the elves, promising to help them henceforward. Can teamwork and a touch of magic change things and make Christmas a happy and surprising time after all?

Nicola’s rhyming narrative together with Pauline Gregory’s detailed, flap-filled scenes of chaotic elf activities, the strike and what follows, make a seasonal story that shows what Christmas is really about.

Clementine’s Christmas
Annie White
New Frontier Publishing

With Clementine on the scene, things are sure to be lively as the pooch’s family members prepare to celebrate Christmas. The tree is bedecked with baubles and bobbly bits, and the presents stand wrapped and ready. Granny, who has been busily knitting stays up late to complete her garment but then discovers that her ball of purple wool has disappeared. “Clementine, have you seen it?” she asks. The two begin to search until to her delight, Granny finds the wool. They also find the jumbled mess they’ve created. A quick tidy leaves everything sorted out but the labels are no longer on the presents. Granny hastily deals with re-attaching them and off to bed she goes.

Come the morning however, when the family presents are opened something is definitely not right. Can the bemused recipients find a way to sort things out? And who was responsible for the muddle?

Another fun, rhyming story about the loveable dog illustrated in amusing watercolour and pencil illustrations by the author.