The Wild Christmas Reindeer

October 11, 1990
Little Teeka's attempts to train Santa's reindeer for their Christmas ride meet with disaster until she realizes that she needs to work with the animals in a new way. ``Tomorrow,'' she says, ``no yelling, no screaming, and no bossing, I promise,'' and with her patient teaching, on Christmas Eve the ``wild reindeer rise up together and carry the sleigh off into the night.'' Brett's characteristic, richly detailed borders depict the activity at Santa's workshop as each day brings Teeka closer to Christmas. As with The Mitten , Brett makes use of Ukranian motifs--colorful embroidered costumes, festive garlands, carvings and cunning toys decorate every page. The reindeer themselves--sporting names like Lichen, Tundra and Bramble--provide most of the comic action in this sweet Christmas fantasy that shows Brett at her best. Ages 4-8.

October 1, 1990
In a pristine wonderland set in the Arctic shadow of Santa's Winterfarm, Teeka trains the reindeer for their annual flight. After a week of fussing, she finally decides it is her fault that the reindeer have misbehaved: "I've spent all my time yelling at you, instead of helping. I'm sorry." So then the reindeer, with such nontraditional names as Heather, Lichen, Crag, and Tundra, get with the program and come prancing in just under the wire. Brett uses side panels to show elves preparing the Christmas goodies before December 24, when Santa loads up. Borders of holiday symbols and a calendar countdown decorate each page. Told in a somewhat colloquial language, this tale with its humorous close-ups of stubborn reindeer and a sharp child protagonist should prove popular at story hours-but children may trample each other in order to see the many details Brett has crammed into her paintings.

January 1, 1990
A fresh Christmas story that begins promisingly but stumbles in the middle when problems are resolved with unbelievable abruptness. The illustrations depict Santa's winter farm with rich color, pattern, and the painstaking detail that children love to pore over.

(Copyright 1990 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)