Young Claus — James Magnuson

Before Santa Claus was Santa Claus, he was a boy, and this is his story. Young Claus is an origin story and a fable for both adults and children, 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 no one has ever seen a tree; where small, bizarre tomten are imprisoned beneath a fish-liver-oil factory; and where his widowed mother is courted 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 marvels and ghosts, a book where Lars, with the aid of invisible helpers, will learn to carve; where he will discover sorrows as deep as his own, and eventually, the healing powers of gifts. 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.