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The Little Reindeer

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The smallest reindeer is exploring Santa's workshop when he accidentally falls into the gift wrapping machine, and finds himself being delivered as a present! The little boy who receives him is overjoyed and cares for him with devotion. One day, he discovers that his reindeer is special—he can fly! When Christmas comes round again, the little reindeer disappears, but in his bed of straw the boy finds a thank you note . . . from Santa Claus. A beautiful and heartwarming Christmas story about Santa’s magical reindeer from one of Britain’s foremost picture book creators.

32 pages, Paperback

First published October 3, 1996

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29 people want to read

About the author

Michael Foreman

348 books42 followers
Michael has worked on magazines, book jackets, animated films, TV adverts, and even for the police, sketching criminals described by witnesses. As well as illustrating many of his own books, Michael has illustrated over a hundred books for authors such as Shakespeare, J. M. Barrie, the Brothers Grimm, Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde. Michael has travelled widely - to Africa, Japan, the Arctic Circle, China and Malaysia, the Himalayas, Siberia and New Zealand - to research his books. "I do a lot of research when I'm travelling - I find it thrilling to discover the particular 'art' of different landscapes and work them into a book. But I find I have to travel by myself, otherwise I'm constantly getting involved in other people's impressions of a place... I try to be invisible when I'm travelling, so I tend to listen in on conversations rather than participate in them - I just want to look and draw."

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5 stars
9 (13%)
4 stars
29 (43%)
3 stars
26 (39%)
2 stars
2 (3%)
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
Profile Image for Caroline.
565 reviews731 followers
February 15, 2021
This is a highly endearing book - what is there not to love about the adventures of a baby reindeer? I read it via Internet Archive. In spite of the less-than-perfect reproduction on that website, the illustrations, done by this multi-talented author/artist, looked enchanting.



I see that a version of the book has also been produced with more cartoon-like illustrations, which I don't think are nearly as nice. So if you are buying the book, it might be worth ensuring you are getting the version you prefer.

Synopsis of story: It's a tale about a little reindeer who got wrapped up by Santa's elves as a Christmas present by mistake, and was taken off from the North Pole on Santa's sleigh. He fell off onto the top of an apartment block in a large city, where he was rescued by a little boy who kept a flock of pigeons on the roof. The boy fed him milk and cereal, and the reindeer thrived. As time went on he grew bigger. Then one day the reindeer flew, and the boy realised he was one of the very special reindeer who could fly. The reindeer carried him over the rooftops around the city. Then one morning the boy went up to the roof .....and the he had gone..... but he found a lovely note from Santa, thanking him for looking after his smallest reindeer.
Profile Image for Hilary .
2,294 reviews489 followers
December 12, 2021
A lovely story about a little reindeer who accidentally joins a parcel wrapping line at the north pole and becomes mistaken for a toy, the reindeer gets wrapped up, loaded up on the sleigh and then falls off, luckily over the top of a high rise building. A boy finds this precious present and thinks it's the best present ever. Although this little present ends up being taken back to Father Christmas headquarters, the end seems happy because the boy who cared for the reindeer looks forward to a special visit each year. In some versions of the book the illustrations look better than others.
Profile Image for Reading_ Tamishly.
5,314 reviews3,486 followers
January 26, 2021
Beautiful Christmas story. The art is dreamy. Love it.

Wish the font size was bigger and more prominent.
Profile Image for Bex.
592 reviews13 followers
January 8, 2022
Boy finds baby reindeer.
Boy looks after reindeer.
Boy discovers reindeer can fly.
Boy gives back to Santa.
Boy gets reward.
Lovely story that I'd like to see fleshed out into a novel. What is the child's background? Why does only he come up to the roof and keep birds? Did anyone see him flying around in daylight?
Profile Image for Prabhat  sharma.
1,549 reviews23 followers
April 30, 2022
The Little Reindeer by Michael Foreman- Children’s illustrated Colour picture Book- The book narrates the Christmas story of a little reindeer who got wrapped up by Santa's elves as a Christmas present by mistake. He was taken off from the North Pole on Santa's sleigh. He fell off onto the top of an apartment block in a large city, where he was rescued by a little boy who kept a flock of pigeons on the roof. The boy fed him milk and cereal, and the reindeer thrived. As time went on he grew bigger. Then one day the reindeer flew, and the boy realised that he was one of the very special reindeer who could fly. The reindeer carried him over the rooftops around the city. Then one morning the boy went up to the roof and did not find the Reindeer as he had gone. But he found a lovely note from Santa, thanking him for looking after his smallest reindeer. Coloured illustrations help the reader to relate to the story. I have read the Hindi language translation of this book.
Profile Image for Wetdryvac.
Author 480 books5 followers
October 1, 2021
A lovely bit of fluff with truly wonderful art.
Profile Image for Aimee.
71 reviews
January 31, 2013
This is a really great book about a boy who is accidentally left a little reindeer from Santa Claus. It has great pictures and shows the little boy being responsible for his pet, which no one knows about. Different scenes in the book show the changing of the seasons which could be incorporated into a lesson.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews

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