The Twelve Days of Christmas

In the spirit of her 2007 The Nutcracker, Jeffers reinterprets this classic carol, creating a narrative to bolster the song. While snooping on Christmas Eve, Emma discovers a gift from Santa—a snow globe containing a partridge in a pear tree. After she breaks it, she curls up in a chair and dreams that she and Santa accumulate the full complement of gifts from the song while winging his sleigh toward the North Pole. The watercolor-and-ink paintings create an air of holiday magic, and the fantastical parade of gifts thrums with activity and attention-grabbing details, from the eight maids a’milking, whose bonnets match those of their cows, to the dapperly dressed and ethnically diverse lords and ladies who dance across pages bedecked with jewels. Ages 4–8. (Oct.)