The Wild Christmas Reindeer - 20th Edition by Jan Brett (Hardcover)

About the Book

Brett provides a marvelously original Christmas story in which Santa asks young Teeka to get his reindeer ready to fly on Christmas Eve. "Beautifully conceived and finely wrought".--Booklist, starred review. "This sweet Christmas fantasy . . . shows Brett at her best".--Publishers Weekly. Full-color illustrations.

Book Synopsis

Rambunctious reindeer have a lot to learn before Santa's big night!

Teeka has an important job training the reindeer in time for their Christmas Eve ride. The animals are spirited and mischievous, but kindness wins the day just in time.

For two decades, readers have loved this classic Christmas story, which was one of the first children's books to hit the New York Times bestseller list. Now, this beautiful 20th anniversary edition, with a foil cover and a heartfelt note from Jan herself, makes a perfect introduction for new fans to this cherished yuletide story.

Featuring the wintry northern setting and the border illustrations that have become a hallmark of Jan's work, readers will love watching Teeka's humorous attempts to control the reindeer and their energetic antics.

Review Quotes

★ "Beautifully conceived and finely wrought." --Booklist, starred review

"Brett's precise, glowing illustrations, drawing on Swedish folk art, make this a beguiling Advent calendar of a book."--Kirkus Reviews

"This tale with its humorous close-ups of stubborn reindeer and a sharp child protagonist should prove popular at story hours."--School Library Journal

About the Author

With over thirty four million books in print, Jan Brett is one of the nation's foremost author illustrators of children's books. Jan lives in a seacoast town in Massachusetts, close to where she grew up. During the summer her family moves to a home in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts.

As a child, Jan Brett decided to be an illustrator and spent many hours reading and drawing. She says, "I remember the special quiet of rainy days when I felt that I could enter the pages of my beautiful picture books. Now I try to recreate that feeling of believing that the imaginary place I'm drawing really exists. The detail in my work helps to convince me, and I hope others as well, that such places might be real."

As a student at the Boston Museum School, she spent hours in the Museum of Fine Arts. "It was overwhelming to see the room-size landscapes and towering stone sculptures, and then moments later to refocus on delicately embroidered kimonos and ancient porcelain," she says. "I'm delighted and surprised when fragments of these beautiful images come back to me in my painting."

Travel is also a constant inspiration. Together with her husband, Joe Hearne, who is a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Jan visits many different countries where she researches the architecture and costumes that appear in her work. "From cave paintings to Norwegian sleighs, to Japanese gardens, I study the traditions of the many countries I visit and use them as a starting point for my children's books."