Peppermint Post

“Neither snow, nor ice, nor weather not so nice can stop Peppermint Post.” That’s Santa’s glowing assessment of the busiest post office in the world, where all his mail is processed by polar bear Postmaster Buck Growlersson and his penguin crew. After millions of letters filled with Christmas wishes have “rocketed through the super-sorter, with a ZIP,/ and a BIP,/ and a FWIPPETY-FWIP,” and requested gifts are en route with Santa on Christmas Eve, Buck realizes that one girl’s note, gone astray, has missed the cut. He and the penguins shift into overdrive to get the girl’s wish to Santa. Though the text perhaps undersells the postal service’s intricacies (“Flying a sleigh wasn’t nearly as easy as running a post office”), the merry urgency of the Peppermint Post’s pace—and Buck’s antic overtime mission—are captured in Laberis’s kinetic illustrations. Jewel tones accented with bright white—Buck’s fur, Santa’s beard, a snowy rooftop—in a combination of spot illustrations and larger scenes sustain the frenzied-feeling motion. Ages 4–8. [em](Sept.) [/em]