Click, Clack, Ho! Ho! Ho!

Starred review from September 14, 2015
If the sight of Duck—outfitted with night-vision goggles, climbing spurs, and a Santa hat—ziplining across a cold winter’s night toward Farmer Brown’s chimney doesn’t provoke laughs and smiles, then the War on Christmas is as good as over. Cronin never exactly discloses what Duck is up to, but it soon becomes moot: he gets stuck in the chimney, and the other animals follow suit as they attempt to “unstuck Duck.” It’s up to the real Santa to set things right. Echoes of Moore’s “Visit from St. Nicholas” can be sensed throughout (“A few creatures are stirring” as the book opens, and Farmer Brown rushes to the window as he senses Santa’s approach), but Cronin and Lewin make this slapstick story all their own, leaving readers (and the farm’s human and animal residents) with a big dose of holiday cheer. Ages 4–8. Agent: Holly McGhee, Pippin Properties.