A Child’s Christmas is Everywhere
Marmadudes and others: It has been a kind week to A Child’s Christmas in New England, and I’ll trail with our new press release. But more important: The season for local get-togethers is at hand, and I’d love to see old friends; beers on me. I’m at the B&N in Yonkers this Saturday, the Village Bookstore in Pleasantville next Tuesday, the Chappaqua Library next Thursday and the Mount Pleasant Library theTuesday after that. Meantime, do visit our website (santalogist.com), listen to our song (“Caroline’s Waltz) and leave your Santa photo on the Santa Wall. It’s all free! Cheers, and do enjoy the season, Bob
Parade, People, Publishers Weekly: A Child’s Christmas in New England Takes Off
The buzz started in earnest a few weeks ago when print runs were extended and, completely unbidden, important folks weighed in early (“A brilliant and tender idea that works, I think, beautifully,” said Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked). Some remembered that author Robert Sullivan and artist Glenn Wolff had partnered in 1996 on Flight of the Reindeer, which at the time had been deemed “a charming new Christmas classic” by Publishers Weekly in a starred review (eventually, 190,000 copies printed; a TV movie made; republished this year by Sky Pony. They now were returning to a favorite theme with quite a different kind of book. Sullivan and Wolff, reunited, were already on the touring trail when PW asked in a headline on November 14 about A Child’s Christmas in New England: “Could a Small Press in New England Have One of This Year’s Christmas Favorites?” In its December 1 edition, after People magazine and several newspapers had already taken note of the book, Parade magazine, with its 32-million-weekly print edition, called A Child’s Christmas “a charming illustrated memoir . . . to cherish [in which] Robert Sullivan recounts his holiday memories from the ’50s and ’60s in vivid detail to his young daughter.” A first-serial excerpt ran it Parade’s online edition.
Immediately, the book has leapt up the rankings at online booksellers including Amazon, and it is presumed this activity had been mirrored in stores. (Sarah Palin’s level of concern has gone unregistered.) The readings and signings by Sullivan and Wolff have been uniformly successful and are becoming true events; fans of the book’s website (santalogist.com) have embraced the song inspired by the book (“Caroline’s Waltz”) and are sending their own Pictures-with-Santa Claus to the “Santa Wall” link; and more press attention (a forthcoming feature in The Boston Globe; another piece on ReadersDigest.com) has been lined up.
In the first reader’s review to appear on Amazon, a Rhode Islander named Barry Plummer offered the opinion, “Sullivan and Wolff have done it again.” Perhaps so.
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