Home for the Holidays

Auntie Claus #3

by Elise Primavera

Have you heard? New York is the new North Pole!

Just ask Auntie Claus!

Sophie Kringle had always dreamed of being the Sugar Plum Fairy in the school play. After all, Sophie is a Kringle. Her family lives at the Bing Cherry Hotel, and her favorite aunt, Auntie Claus, serves Christmas cookies at teatime — even in July. When Auntie Claus hears that Sophie will make her debut in the school play, she decides to have her cake and eat it too — this year Auntie Claus will be home for the holidays and the North Pole will move south to New York! Finally getting to see the tree at Rockefeller Center, the department store windows, and the 57th Street Snowflake with Auntie Claus — Sophie will have a Christmas that she never could have imagined!

Join Sophie on an adventure that goes straight to the heart of Christmas! Bring along your favorite Christmas cookie recipe, your warmest coat, and your tutu!

Genres: Christmas, Picture Books, Holiday, Childrens, Fiction

40 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Dolly]

This is the third book in the Auntie Claus series by Elise Primavera. We've read the other two and I wasn't overly thrilled with either. In fact, I fell asleep to both as our oldest read them aloud to us and had to read them on my own the next day. I actually stayed awake for this story, but liked it no better than the previous two. I liked the Nutcracker theme (since I just brought our girls to see the Nutcracker on Saturday and they got pictures taken with the Sugar Plum fairy), but I really dislike the way that the fairy obsessed over food and her weight. (anorexia, anyone?) And then when convinced to enjoy some Christmas treats, she immediately ballooned up in weight. Seriously, this is not the message I want to send to our girls. Oh well, I guess you just can't like everything out there.

[Amberly]

The only reason I gave this two stars was because of the illustrations. The story is not good. Aside from being set during Christmas time and sacrificing a tutu for someone else, this book is not Christmas-y. Way too much time is spent on a “fat ballerina” who are cake at tea time every day. Skip this one.

[Caren]

Not as fun as the first one, which kids love.
This one is more entrenched in areas of New YOrk City, it is the star.
If you aren't familiar with some of these areas, it might just become meaningless to a kid.

[Charlotte]

What a shallow, superficial message for kids. The Sugar Plum Fairy is obsessed with staying thin, gains weight after indulging in sweets, cries about being too fat, and the day is saved when she is given a bigger tutu.

[DeNae]

The story feels too long for the intended audience and this one, in particular, felt disjointed and incomplete. I also don't like books that reference ballerinas who can't eat cake and, when they do, get too "fat" for their tutus. Overall a dud for me.

[Ben Truong]

Home for the Holidays is a children's picture book written and illustrated by Elise Primavera. It centers on Auntie Claus, the sister of Santa Claus. It is the third book in the Auntie Claus series.

The text is rather simplistic and straightforward. The narrative is simple as Auntie Claus decides to stay in New York during Christmas to watch her niece in a pageant, instead of going to the North Pole with humorous repercussions. Primavera's vibrant acrylics fill the city to the brim with holiday energy.

The premise of the book is rather straightforward. Auntie Claus decides to forgo her annual business trip up north so her niece, Sophie Kringle, can perform in the school play. Christmas characters like the Sugar Plum Fairy and the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future flock to the decadent Bing Cherry Hotel, but transforming the Big Apple into the North Pole comes with humorous complications.

All in all, Home for the Holidays is a decent story about bringing the North Pole to New York City and all the complication it comes when one is Santa Claus' sister.

[Lauren]

My kids and I love the Auntie Clause book (#1) - It has been a Christmas favorite for years. We were so excited to see this at the library and immediately checked it out. I am so disappointed by this story and it is my opinion that it sends a terrible message to children about body image. The main plot is that the sugar plum fairy from the NYC ballet becomes too fat to wear her tutu from eating too much cake, and Sophie (the main character) learns about kindness by giving her the larger tutu she was supposed to wear. When it started saying that the sugar plum fairy was too fat and that this was from eating a small amount of cake, I began to skip words to avoid reading most of this to my daughter. This type of message is so damaging. I truly love the first book of this series but I wish this had never been published. Children need to learn to love their bodies, no matter the size, and we should teach them to live a healthy lifestyle that can (and should) involve the occasional piece of cake. I really would warn parents away from this book. But go grab the first one - it’s great.

[Mikayla Partlow]

*Teaches Negative Body Image*

One of the characters in the book is the real sugar plum fairy. The sugar plum fairy says that she can’t eat sweets because she has to be as light as air to dance as a ballerina. The illustration of her is unrealistically thin.
She is tempted into eating sweets and then she doesn’t fit in her ballerina costume. She is “too fat to fit into her tutu.” It then reads, “‘I think you look divine, darling,’ Auntie Claus said tactically. ‘Nothing a few slimming vertical lines and a bit of duct tape won’t fix.’”
In this stage of the story the sugar plum fairy has realistically portioned limbs.

I don’t think any child should be reading this since it teaches that ballerinas can’t eat sweets, dancers can’t be a realistic weight and still dance well, and a normal body is fat.

I won’t let my daughters read this and hope others will also acknowledge the harm this message can cause.

[Deanna (Pages & Pajamas)]

If you're interested in promoting body-image issues to little girls than this is the book for you! This should be a zero star!
In it, a dancer cannot dance because she had some treats and now can't fit into her tutu. The little girl does a kind gesture and helps her out. Now, I'm all for the selfless act, but not for showing my daughter that you can't do something because you ate some cake!! Little girls are sponges at this age and really do pick up on this stuff. The story could have been done differently and had something else happen to the dancers outfit.
I can't believe this was printed in 2009 and not 1950.

[Jo Oehrlein]

Working from Home for Auntie Claus doesn't turn out so well for the rest of NYC -- it feels like the North Pole has relocated to NYC!

The real Sugar Plum Fairy eats cake and is too big for her costume (she eventually borrows Sophie's). Sophie is set to be the Sugar Plum Fairy in her dance school's production.

Not sure the ending with them all dancing at the North Pole makes a lot of sense.

[Nicole]

I read this to my 4 year old today (this book is rated ages 4-8 btw) & was really annoyed with the ballerina concerned about her weight & then being called out for getting fat after having her cake and eating it too. I wish I could go back and undo reading this to her. It was written in 2009, before the body positivity & anti-diet culture messages of today, so I guess you could excuse the author for it.

[Lisa Houston]

Perfect for imaginative little girls.

[Jeremy]

Includes ghosts (past, present, and future).

[Dina]

Gorgeous illustrations. Nice story.

[JP Robinson]

The illustrations are well done, the kids enjoyed it.

[Kayla]

No thanks on the fatphobia rampant in this book.

[MadaLin Dawn]

Really fat shaming a fairy🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️

[Elise]

Honestly, I hated this one, and my youngest didn't really care for it much either.

[Rachel]

Fun and playful.

[Ruth]

Lacks the heart of the original book.

[Miri]

These books are so weird, but I like them. Some of the landscape illustrations are hard to make out, especially with all the snow in this one—gives it kind of a wild feeling. I wasn't thrilled with the Sugar Plum Fairy's storyline, and the fact that (of course) getting "fat" meant that her waist was still absurdly tiny and her bloomer-type costume was just ballooned out cartoonishly. Because a big ass is hilarious, but showing a character actually get fat in a human way is taboo.

[Pam]

While I absolutely adored the first book in this series and enjoyed the second, this one did not live up to those. The story was boring, one dimensional, and at times the dialogue was just a jumble of words without transmitting any depth to the story. I recommend you skip this one. Even the illustrations are not up to the previous books as many are muddy swirls without any detail. I was hoping for more as I enjoyed those other books so much.

[↜ƈɦǟռ☂ɛℓℓɛ↝]

Hmmm, weird, a strange version of the North Pole and a Sugar Plum Fairy, crying about being fat, but being able to burrow the tutu of a child to fit. Not a real positive for impressionable young girls.

[Jen]

I bought the original Auntie Claus for my niece way back when, and this year bought this follow-up for my sister-in-law to read to HER niece when she arrives.

Auntie Claus is a posh world traveling cohort to Santa. Much fun.

[Leslie Fisher]

I really wanted to love this book. It is beautiful and has wonderful full-page, full-color illustrations. The story didn't read well, though, and I didn't find myself (or my kids) very interested in it. Overall, its okay.

[Susan]

I found this very disappointing after adoring Auntie Claus and liking the second book. The story was dull and the message muddled.

[Allison]

The third book of the Auntie Clause trilogy. It is a must read for all!

[Isela]

I saw this book in the library, after seeing the vibrant colors, I decided to borrow it. However, this book is about New York, was too long to read. Therefore, not the best Christmas book.

[Sara]

Sweet

[Kimberly Souza]

Beautiful and fun, I love this book series.