The House That Santa Built

De Las Casas and Stone-Barker follow This Is the House That Witchy Built with another holiday title based on the cumulative nursery rhyme. Numerous sound effects encourage lively interactive reading: “This is the elf (hee, hee)/ That tried to catch the mouse (squeak, squeak)/ That lived in the house (creak, creak)/ That Santa built (clap, clap, clap, clap).” Thanks to Stone-Barker’s cut-paper collages, the eponymous house—with its green plaid turrets, purple domes, and cherry-blossom roofing—is a marvel, but her generic looking characters don’t fare as well, and a thudding conclusion (“The moral of the story is.../ Everyone is welcome in the house/ That Santa built! (Ho! Ho! Ho!)/ Merry Christmas!”) doesn’t help. Up to age 5. (Sept.)