Christmas for Critter Means Fun For All

Mercer Mayer has been charming the world with his stories for decades, most famously with his extensive series of books for young readers about a lovable character of ambiguous species named Little Critter. This young scamp has been through all sorts of adventures, mostly of the everyday variety that a majority of young readers will have had themselves. In Merry Christmas, Little Critter! we see how he celebrates Christmas with his family, which includes his parents, his sister and, later in the book, his grandparents.

While this book, like most in the series, is paperback, the pages are thicker than usual, feeling like cardstock rather than regular paper. The reason for this is that on each right page, there is a flap to open in order to reveal the "after" portion of a before-and-after scenario. Usually the scene that emerges is of the chaotic variety, such as Little Critter and his sister crashing their sled into a barn full of pigs or Little Critter hopelessly tangling the Christmas lights he's supposed to hang.

Usually I'm not a big fan of the present tense in picture books, but it works for this simply written story and helps emphasize the fact that these are things that Little Critter does every year. It would be interesting if Mayer had introduced a tradition unique to Critters, but it's fine to watch him enjoying all the typical components of an American kid's Christmas celebration, from mailing a letter to Santa to caroling around the neighborhood.

That caroling illustration is one of my favorites, particularly the detail of the caroling books, which promise 1000 carols but don't look more than a few pages long. "Wow!" reads the blurb on the back cover. "You'll just love to sing them!" Apparently the Critters do, anyway, and the lucky folks they visit love to hear them and accordingly invite them in for eggnog.

I also love illustration of Christmas morning, in which we see the gifts given to the Critter kids. These include a variety of boyish toys for Little Critter, most amusingly a Dracula jack-in-the-box, and some that are less exciting, including a Bill Cosby-style sweater that he eyes with the utmost distaste.

The funny, vibrant pictures are the reason to buy Merry Christmas, Little Critter! There's not much of a plot other than the general progression from anticipating Christmas to savoring the day, but Mayer's sense of humor and attention to detail make a merry Christmas for Critter happy reading for the rest of us.