How do children's letters to Santa reach their destination? Via Peppermint Post, of course!Buck, an anthropomorphic polar bear, is postmaster of the Peppermint Post, which means he's in charge of ensuring that Santa receives all the letters children send him. His job is especially demanding during the Christmas rush, and luckily, he has a team of penguins to assist him (the text eventually acknowledges that these birds "belong at the South Pole, not the North!"). Alas, just when Buck thinks all the mail has been handled and Santa departs for his Christmas Eve trip, he finds an errant letter. Buck scrambles to right this wrong, enlisting the penguins to pull him in a backup sleigh to go off in pursuit of Santa and his reindeer (the text also acknowledges that penguins are flightless birds). Hijinks ensue in the chase, with Laberis' cartoony art working overtime to augment the humor of "a hairy shortcut" through a train tunnel, among other mishaps. Buck and his team eventually catch up with St. Nick at the house of the child who wrote the misplaced letter. More slapstick scenes arise in this setting, though readers may close the book scratching their heads rather than laughing as Santa, the reindeer, the penguins, and Buck all depart the house together, without any indication of what's become of the backup sleigh.Funny-but not funny enough. (Picture book. 3-6)

-Neither snow, nor ice, nor weather not so nice can stop Peppermint Post.- That-s Santa-s glowing assessment of the busiest post office in the world, where all his mail is processed by polar bear Postmaster Buck Growlersson and his penguin crew. After millions of letters filled with Christmas wishes have -rocketed through the super-sorter, with a ZIP,/ and a BIP,/ and a FWIPPETY-FWIP,- and requested gifts are en route with Santa on Christmas Eve, Buck realizes that one girl-s note, gone astray, has missed the cut. He and the penguins shift into overdrive to get the girl-s wish to Santa. Though the text perhaps undersells the postal service-s intricacies (-Flying a sleigh wasn-t nearly as easy as running a post office-), the merry urgency of the Peppermint Post-s pace-and Buck-s antic overtime mission-are captured in Laberis-s kinetic illustrations. Jewel tones accented with bright white-Buck-s fur, Santa-s beard, a snowy rooftop-in a combination of spot illustrations and larger scenes sustain the frenzied-feeling motion. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)