Young Claus

Description

Young Claus
by James Magnuson

ISBN: 9780875658360
Softcover, new
published: October 2023

Brief Description:
“Before Santa Claus was Santa Claus, he was a boy, and this is his story.
Young Claus is both an origin story and a children’s fable for adults, in
the tradition of The Little Prince and The Last Unicorn. Young Lars Claus
loses his father in a logging accident and, with his mother and
grandmother, has to move to a strange land in the Far North, a land of
exiles, outcasts, and survivors. Here he encounters a school where the
children only laugh at the misfortunes of others, where small, bizarre
creatures are imprisoned beneath a fish liver oil factory, and where his
widowed mother is wooed by the malevolent Mayor Wolfpaw. This is a wild
romp of a book that soars into the skies and plunges deep beneath the
permafrost. It is a book filled with the marvels and ghosts, a book where
Lars, with the help of invisible helpers, will learn to carve, where he
will discover sorrows as deep as his own and eventually the healing powers
of gifts. Certainly no one has been the subject of more lies by parents
than Santa Claus. This book attempts to find the simple human truths buried
beneath those awkward lies. It charts the journey of a boy beset by grief
who will, after many trials, fashion a vision of generosity that will
encompass the entire world”–

Target Age Group: Ages 10 And Up