Written by Jonathan Emmet
Illustrated by Poly Bernatene
Peachtree Publishers
Macmillan Children's Books
Winter isn't the best of time for everyone, and not everyone celebrates with the Merry Postman in his best red suit. Even when he comes bearing gift to town, some people would rather he just be stopped. Thous the theme of this year's Santa Clause adventure, a little boy and his urge to stop Saint Nicolas from his predestined journey across the globe, making him pay for all the years he's never given him a gift. There's something about the holiday season that always brings out the mischief side of me. I want to see these other creatures of the snow that want for the holly jolly weather to match their cold hearts. Let's grab a few warm blankets, some chairs, and take a look at this fun children's dark comedy.
I love the title, even the font tells you what's going to happen within the book. The obvious complimentary colors of the holiday fits the season's setting, and the hues bring out the tone, so there's elements to focus on and details to infer, even before the book is open. The Cover is a classic graphic design illustration arrow, the background is a cool color that reflects the darkness that is the main character, his aura, and the red chair that pops in the piece with the luminescent carpet that acts like the head of the arrow. Capturing your vision as you see the page and it pulls you down from the title to the main character and our bad guy for this evening. It's really shocking to see this, since most covers stay away from the "V" formation for Children's Illustrated Novels. Even the back cover uses a "Z" format to capture the eyes to read and imply what will happen next with the explosives and the Christmas Tree. Well done, very well done.
The Designs are fantastic, lovely exaggerations of events and a horrible child to bring forth the idea that not all children are pure and kind. That even people obsessed with Christmas can be horrid and filled with threatening venom. With every page swims a tale, a story of a problem or delight that befalls the focus of the page. Within the first ten pages it's agony and dismay, the troubles that are faced can be horrible, though are mild, since it's a Christmas Children's Illustrated Novel, but are still threatening, even if it's all implied danger and mayhem.
Sorry about our appearance, the true image will be up soon.
Our Main character, Bradley Bartleby, is one that I do not like, though I can enjoy his wit and vigor to get what he wants from the one being that will never budge on an event so important to him that he spends his life's work on pleasing all the good children of the world (even those that might not believe in him) that one special gift. This imaginative youngster, who's rich. It's a cliche that I hate "rich people are jerks and poor people are kind", it's a tool for the story to use, but I'd rather see a kid that was horrible, one that wasn't defined by the wealth of their parents. Still this is the tale that's in front of me and this is the story of a rich kid and his battle with Santa Claus over toys, again another cliche.
The Illustrations are very well conceptualized, also the poses and the expressions are gorgeous. It's like an homage to the older Children's Illustrated Novels with a contemporary hue added where needed to complete the piece. The style is detailed though it doesn't lose focus on what's important for the page and the characters.
Traps were imaginative in the visual creation, though I'm not going to say cliche, since one can hand someone an axe and make them a murderer or a lumberjack, it's all about execution of the device. Let me tell you the execution of this book was lovely. It's the old switch-a-roo, the kid is then attacked and trapped and scrapped and beaten through the night, showing a bit of humility that he rightly needs. It's an interesting ending, since the kid is sitting there, defeated and tired, holding socks and knowing that a jolly man in red has bested him after a year's worth of obsession. It's a nice ending that really sets all of the pages apart, since this is the most empty. Everything up to this point has been detailed and gone over at least a dozen times before it was finalized. Like a comic or a machine that needs all the moving parts to be placed in a way that builds a bigger picture, one that you can see from space.
I can't rave enough that this is a beautiful art piece, the writing was paced well, it kept up with the dramatic diagrams. Children's books they say are easy to write, then one tries and it doesn't always come out in their favor. It's like poetry, some have a talent for flowered words, others have to put more time into learning the skill. Words between images give flow and life to a story that's bland and uneventful. It pushes the cartoonist to think beyond a simple summary and expose something deeper, something that's not too mature, but brings out the elements of the words they have to work with and the theme that they have to work within.
In short, if you're the type of person that likes the bad guy to lose and really gain nothing from their adventure, then look no further, though if you're like me and love seeing the journey that this character takes to gain, or be deprived, in a visual spectacle then you've found the book that you'll be reading for many holiday seasons to come.
I trust you enjoyed the inspection, thank you for reading.
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Keep well and Stay well.
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