Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

A healthy dose of holiday magic abounds in a picture book poised to make a big splash. A little bit Auntie Mame, a little bit Coco Chanel, Sophie Kringle's glamorous great-aunt lives in a penthouse atop Manhattan's Bing Cherry Hotel. Auntie Claus disappears every holiday season on a mysterious business trip and, determined to discover her destination, Sophie stows away and follows her. Larded with scrumptious visual foreshadowing, Primavera's hilariously arch gouache and pastel illustrations are the highlight of this merry confection. Ages 4-8. (Oct.) FYI: The author has established a Web site for the book at www.auntieclaus.com, and Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City has chosen Primavera's tale as the theme for its holiday window display.

Horn Book

CeCe McGill struggles to understand why her cantankerous father would sacrifice his life to aid slaves traveling the Underground Railroad. While accompanying her uncle to plantations in pre–Civil War Georgia, CeCe begins to appreciate her family's ideals. Rinaldi's narrative addresses head-on the atrocities of slavery and one young woman's urgency to help free those in bondage. An author's note gives background information. Bib.

Kirkus Reviews

A grand, if unsubtle, cousin to William Joyce's Santa Calls (1993). Smug little rich girl Sophie Kringle has a great-aunt who lives in high style atop the palatial Bing Cherry Hotel, vacating only for her mysterious annual "business trip" between Halloween and Valentine's Day. One year, Sophie stows away in Auntie Claus's luggage, and ends up at the North Pole, pressed into hard service as an elf. When she catches sight of the Bad-Boys-And-Girls list, and finds her little brother's name on it, she reacts with uncharacteristic, newly mustered compassion, erasing his name and adding her own in it's place; suddenly she's sharing a stage with Auntie, who turns out to be Santa's sister and, having learned that it is better to give than to receive ("the first and final rule," as Auntie calls it), is whisked home just in time for Christmas. Tall and slender in fur-trimmed red, Auntie Claus cuts as elegant a figure amidst the North Pole's snowy bustle as she does in her sparsely appointed New York digs; most of Primavera's expansive scenes are underlit to add an air of mystery, and presided over by looming background figures: Santa, the Statue of Liberty, a huge, moon-faced snowman. A promising bid for holiday bestsellerdom. (Picture book. 6-8)

ALA Booklist

In this frothy Christmas escapade, bratty little Sophie Kringle decides to find out where her mysterious Auntie Claus goes each year after Halloween. So Sophie sneaks into Auntie's trunk and is whisked to a snowy land, where she is mistaken for an elf and sent to work in the mail room. It is only after Sophie erases her brother's name on the bad children's list and replaces it with her own that she learns her aunt is the real force behind Christmas and what the holiday is really about. The book's message--it's better to give than receive--might be missed in all the glam and glitter that surrounds it. If the story is a bit lean, the artwork is thick with snow, greenery, and decorations. Primavera's pictures deftly combine sophistication in the form of Auntie and her New York lifestyle with a wildly childlike world view full of snowmen, elves, and Santas dancing through the story. The velvety colorings, deep purples and icy blues mixed with traditional reds and greens, seem soft enough to touch. Like William Joyce's Santa Calls (1993), images from the book will be used promotionally by Saks Fifth Avenue. (Reviewed September 1, 1999)