Rocky Mountain Night Before Christmas (Night Before Christmas Series)
Flying cows? That's just one of the liberties the tenderfoot author takes in shifting the Moore chestnut to a cowboy-centric setting. But a focus on the hardscrabble life of a rancher leaves little room for child-friendly detail or holiday cheer in this re-imagining of the poem, which references chaw, and a nip to ease a bad hip. During the Christmas Eve encounter, an un-jolly Santa is roughed up, lassoed and nearly dragged by a horse before the rancher vaguely recognizes the red suit. No wonder the rancher concludes, And somehow I knew [Santa] wouldn't be back—readers might not be, either. All ages.(Oct.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.