K-Gr. 2. Brett transports readers high above the Arctic Circle in this vivid, well-paced retelling of an old Norwegian folktale, a companion to her previous picture books Christmas Trolls (2000) and The Trouble with Trolls (1999). One Christmas Eve, a cold, hungry, Oslo-bound boy from Finnmark makes his way through the snow with his ice bear. Inside a distant hut, young Kyri prepares a delicious, aromatic holiday feast of sausage, fish, and tasty buns as she waits for her father to return home. Farther away (shown in one of Brett's trademark visually intricate insets), a ravenous troll sniffs the air to locate--and ultimately devour!-- Kyri's repast, just as he and his friends have every year. Children will be riveted by this suspenseful, happy-ending story of wanderers who "Knockety knock, knockety knock" at Kyri's door and the greedy, long-snouted trolls who "munched and grunted, shrieked and cackled, splashed the cider, and crammed themselves with Christmas cakes." Gorgeous endpapers depicting night-sky constellations studded with trolls, bears, and other mythical symbols complement the exquisitely detailed winter-wonderland artistry within. Karin Snelson
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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."
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."
