Santa Claus and the Three Bears
By Regan McMahon,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Beautiful art enhances holiday twist on classic fairy tale.

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What's the Story?
It's Christmas Eve, and a gentle, loving polar bear family take a walk in the snow to let their Christmas pudding cool off. While they're out, Santa comes to drop off the family's gifts on his global rounds, helps himself to the bears' pudding, and breaks Baby Bear's chair. The family arrives home to find Santa taking a nap in Baby Bear's bed. Santa apologizes for the breakage and promises to bring them a new chair next year.
Is It Any Good?
SANTA CLAUS AND THE THREE BEARS does a great job of adapting the familiar tale for the holidays. Beautiful art with a traditional feel makes the book truly special and fun to pore over and notice all the little details of the polar bears' cozy, Christmas-y home. This is perfect for read-aloud, maybe with a nice cup of hot cocoa!
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about fairy tale updates. What do you think of taking a well-known tale and adding Santa to the mix?
What do you see in the illustrations that gives you the idea the bears are ready for Christmas?
Do you think Santa gets hungry and tired on his way around the world? Would you?
Book Details
- Author: Maria Modugno
- Illustrators: Brooke Dyer, Jane Dyer
- Genre: Holiday
- Topics: Book Characters, Fairy Tales, Holidays, Wild Animals
- Book type: Fiction
- Publisher: Harper
- Publication date: September 24, 2013
- Publisher's recommended age(s): 4 - 8
- Number of pages: 40
- Available on: Hardback
- Last updated: March 4, 2020
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