Librarian's Night Before Christmas Hardcover - 2007

From the jacket flap

Praise for The Night Before Christmas Series:
"Forget Dancer, Prancer, Comet, and Vixen. . . . Good Clement, wherever he is, will not be gnashing his teeth."
-New York Times Book Review

What happened next didn't seem to be real,
'Cause out of the sky cruised a red bookmobile!
Up to the front steps flew his library ride,
With a portrait of Shakespeare airbrushed on the side.

Due to low staffing, a librarian must spend her Christmas Eve stacking the shelves at a library in desperate need of renovations. After the strain of a long night that has left her feeling "like Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol," she is pleasantly surprised to see Santa and his six elves coming to her rescue in a red bookmobile.

Santa charged through the door, and his black knee boots shone.
He bowed as he asked, "Need interlibrary loans?"

In this delightful retelling of Clement C. Moore's classic, Santa signs Newbery winners and starred Caldecotts and stocks the library shelves with Hawthorne, Steinbeck, Millay, and Hemingway. After reading to the children and drinking some hot chocolate, Santa puts his elves to work replacing the rugs, fixing leaks, and organizing gifts according to the Dewey decimal system. As he leaves, Santa pays overdue fees and booms, "Do one more good deed. Have a real merry Christmas-teach someone to read!"

Media reviews

Citations

• Hornbook Guide to Children, 07/01/2007, Page 432
• School Library Journal, 10/01/2007, Page 97