Happy Halloween, Li'L Santa [Hardcover]

Thierry Robin (Author), Lewis Trondheim (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2003

In this second silent adventure, Li’l Santa encounters the many critters of a Halloween night.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In a sequel to Li’l Santa that is every bit as bizarre and grisly and warmhearted as the first, Happy Halloween, Li’l Santa is a completely wordless graphic novel with so much action and adventure, readers won’t know what hit them! First, the "li’l" red-suited hero gets a talking-to from his penguin buddy for trying to sneak samples from the his picnic basket. Then he has a chance encounter with a ghastly but friendly creature (a turbaned cross between mummy and skeleton) that causes a bewildered Santa to walk into several trees. Next, he winds up rescuing this fellow from a frozen pond incident, leading to a wild party with all the cheerful demons and ghouls in the mummy-man’s coffin-sleigh. As everyone knows, what goes around comes around, so when Santa needs some help later, you know who comes running (and flying and sliming and lurching).

This may be the oddest book around, but it has true charm. Younger children may be alarmed at the beating Santa and his pals keep getting (what with walking into trees and wrangling with evil lumberjack monster-machines), but all’s well that ends well. Each page features 14 or 15 frames, ensuring that the plot hops along rapidly, once "readers" get the hang of it. A quirky delight for Halloween or Christmas! (All ages) --Emilie Coulter

From Booklist

Gr. 1-3. In his second wordless adventure, Li'l Santa takes on a team of loggers who threaten to reduce his great forest into boxes of wooden matches. This time Santa has the help of new friends--a colony of Tim Burtonesque monsters who create Halloween mischief in much the same way Santa's workers produce toys. Robin's artwork brings to mind Otto Soglow's Little King, only with brighter colors, and the comic-strip panels keep the action moving along swiftly. Children will enjoy browsing the full-page illustrations and picking out new details with each reading; the Halloween mansion is especially rich with visual gags. There's some cartoon violence (Santa is thrown into an incinerator and is nearly cut in half by a log saw), but for the most part, this is an unusual, thoroughly enjoyable holiday adventure that will please many children in the target age group. Carlos Orellana
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: NBM Publishing; Graphic novel edition (September 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561633615
• ISBN-13: 978-1561633616
• Product Dimensions: 11.5 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,907,286 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Energetic, upbeat, and thoroughly & entertaining, November 16, 2003

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Happy Halloween, Li'L Santa (Hardcover)

Happy Halloween, Li'l Santa is a most delightful, original, and lively graphic novel storybook recommended for kids from 8 to 80 and that spins out it's holiday tale entirely in pictures. Each page is divided into sixteen panels that wordlessly move the adventure along, as Li'l Santa wanders into one scrape after another and befriends creatures such as The Abominable Snowman. An energetic, upbeat, and thoroughly entertaining "picture-tale", Happy Halloween, Li'l Santa is the collaborative effort of author Lewis Trondheim, illustrator Thierry Robin, and colorist Isabelle Busschaert.