The Christmas Adventure of Space Elf Sam - Hardcover

Don and Audrey Wood have been an award-winning team for over 25 years. “When our son, Bruce, was
very young, the best part of the day for my wife, Audrey, and me was reading him his bedtime picture
books....That's when I fell in love with children's literature and decided to illustrate, and occasionally
write, children's books,” says Don, who grew up on his family's farm in California. Audrey grew up in a
family of artists and is a fourth-generation artist.
Together, Don and Audrey created their first picture book in 1976. Since then, they have collaborated on
several award-winning picture books, including the Caldecott Honor book, King Bidgood's in the Bathtub.
For more information about Don and Audrey Wood, visit: scholastic.com/tradebooks or audreywood.com

"From the Toy Story school of 3-D computer animation comes this intergalactic Christmas drama from Wood (Sweet Dream Pie) and son. The time is the future, when humans have colonized other planets and Santa needs a team of delivery agents to distribute his Yuletide goodies. Space Elf Sam is charged by Santa to get Christmas presents to Alpha One - a space colony that has just come to Santa's attention - even though the hour is late. A bit of a hotshot, Sam tries to peel some light years off his destination by warping through a hydrogen cloud, but only succeeds in damaging his spaceship. He makes an emergency landing on the unexplored planet of Gom. The Gommer's apparent menace turns out to be a case of xenophobia, and when Sam is brought before the king and queen, he explains Christmas and helps the Gommers concoct their own holiday ceremony with the help of some Teebles (trees), Zogs (ornamental critters), and Winky-Winks (twinkling lights). Despite all delays, Sam arrives on Alpha One on time. The pleasure of giving is a message worn on the sleeve here, the energy of the text is duplicated (and sometimes bested) by the illustrations. They have an electric palette just this side of garish, will make readers want to reach inside the pages and pull the characters out, and vastly reward rereadings." -- Kirkus Reviews 10/1/1998