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Kersti and Saint Nicholas
A beautifully illustrated book for the Holidays about Kersti, a mischievous little girl who is always misbehaving, much to the dismay of her six older sisters and parents. As St. Nicholas Day approaches, Kersti worries that she won't receive any gifts and sets out on an adventure. First published in 1940, this new edition has been abridged and adapted by the author's family to make it more accessible to young readers today.
76 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1940
50 people want to read
About the author
Hilda van Stockum
54 books76 followersBorn February 9, 1908, in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Hilda van Stockum was a noted author, illustrator and painter, whose work has won the Newbery Honor and the National Conference of Christians and Jews Brotherhood Award. She was also a charter member of the Children's Book Guild and the only person to have served as its president for two consecutive terms.
Van Stockum was raised partly in Ireland, and also in Ymuiden, the seaport of Amsterdam, where her father was port commander. With no car and few companions, she recalled turning to writing out of boredom. She was also a talented artist. A penchant for art evidently ran in the family, which counted the van Goghs as distant relatives.
In the 1920s, she worked as an illustrator for the Dublin-based publishing house, Browne & Nolan. She illustrated her first book, an Irish reader, in 1930, and her last book in 2001, giving her a 71-year career as a book-illustrator.
Van Stockum attended art school in Amsterdam and later in Dublin, where she met and later married Ervin Ross "Spike" Marlin, who at the time was her brother Willem's roommate at Trinity College. Willem Van Stockum was killed piloting a bomber over France in 1944. Van Stockum memorialized him in her book The Mitchells (1945), about the travails of raising a family in Washington, D.C., during the war. She often used her family as models for the written and illustrated characters in her books.
Not surprisingly then, Van Stockum was, in fact, raising a family in Washington, D.C., at the time, having married Marlin, who by 1935 was a Roosevelt administration official.
She had written and illustrated her first book for children, A Day on Skates , in 1934. It had a foreword by her aunt-by-marriage, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and won a Newbery Honor. During the next four decades she averaged one book per year written, illustrated, translated or some combination.
Van Stockum and the couple's six children were in tow for Marlin's peripatetic assignments, and it seems nothing short of miraculous that she managed to write and illustrate a score of children's books. In addition, she translated and illustrated editions of many other authors.
Asked in 1942 by the Washington Post how she did it, Van Stockum replied with characteristic aplomb, "By neglecting my other duties." Highly organized in her work, she illustrated and painted in the winter and wrote in the summer, when she could get her children out of the house.
Known for their warm, vivid, and realistic depictions of family life in the face of danger and difficulties, van Stockum's books typically featured families and were set wherever she happened to be living; Francie on the Run (1939), about a child who escapes from a hospital, was set in Ireland. Friendly Gables (1958) completed the Mitchells' saga — by then they had moved to Montreal from Washington.
Her most popular book, The Winged Watchman (1962) is the story of two Dutch boys who help the Resistance during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. The book is based on letters Hilda received from relatives in the Netherlands, and has been praised for conveying an accurate sense of life under Nazi occupation.
Hilda van Stockum died in 2006 at the age of 98.
Van Stockum was raised partly in Ireland, and also in Ymuiden, the seaport of Amsterdam, where her father was port commander. With no car and few companions, she recalled turning to writing out of boredom. She was also a talented artist. A penchant for art evidently ran in the family, which counted the van Goghs as distant relatives.
In the 1920s, she worked as an illustrator for the Dublin-based publishing house, Browne & Nolan. She illustrated her first book, an Irish reader, in 1930, and her last book in 2001, giving her a 71-year career as a book-illustrator.
Van Stockum attended art school in Amsterdam and later in Dublin, where she met and later married Ervin Ross "Spike" Marlin, who at the time was her brother Willem's roommate at Trinity College. Willem Van Stockum was killed piloting a bomber over France in 1944. Van Stockum memorialized him in her book The Mitchells (1945), about the travails of raising a family in Washington, D.C., during the war. She often used her family as models for the written and illustrated characters in her books.
Not surprisingly then, Van Stockum was, in fact, raising a family in Washington, D.C., at the time, having married Marlin, who by 1935 was a Roosevelt administration official.
She had written and illustrated her first book for children, A Day on Skates , in 1934. It had a foreword by her aunt-by-marriage, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and won a Newbery Honor. During the next four decades she averaged one book per year written, illustrated, translated or some combination.
Van Stockum and the couple's six children were in tow for Marlin's peripatetic assignments, and it seems nothing short of miraculous that she managed to write and illustrate a score of children's books. In addition, she translated and illustrated editions of many other authors.
Asked in 1942 by the Washington Post how she did it, Van Stockum replied with characteristic aplomb, "By neglecting my other duties." Highly organized in her work, she illustrated and painted in the winter and wrote in the summer, when she could get her children out of the house.
Known for their warm, vivid, and realistic depictions of family life in the face of danger and difficulties, van Stockum's books typically featured families and were set wherever she happened to be living; Francie on the Run (1939), about a child who escapes from a hospital, was set in Ireland. Friendly Gables (1958) completed the Mitchells' saga — by then they had moved to Montreal from Washington.
Her most popular book, The Winged Watchman (1962) is the story of two Dutch boys who help the Resistance during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. The book is based on letters Hilda received from relatives in the Netherlands, and has been praised for conveying an accurate sense of life under Nazi occupation.
Hilda van Stockum died in 2006 at the age of 98.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 7, 2018
Another great van Stockum family, this one all little Dutch girls. A goodly amount of local information (including religious - the feast of St. Nicholas and associated traditions), plenty of universal family life, and an appealing star character in the person of little Kersti.
Wonderful illustrations, both black-and-white and full color.
Wonderful illustrations, both black-and-white and full color.
December 27, 2025
I'm having a hard time rating this one. First of all, I *love* Hilda Van Stockum and secondly, the illustrations were lovely so that's where the 2 stars come from...but the story of this book was really not something I want to read again or even have my children read.
Kersti is a spoiled rotten brat who never repents and is rewarded for her misbehaving (really awful misbehaving) and she also leads others astray (including Saint Nicholas!). I just don't know what Van Stockum was thinking with this one.
Kersti is a spoiled rotten brat who never repents and is rewarded for her misbehaving (really awful misbehaving) and she also leads others astray (including Saint Nicholas!). I just don't know what Van Stockum was thinking with this one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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November 15, 2022Kersti lives in long-ago Holland. She is her parents' seventh daughter, and is completely spoiled by her older sisters. She is naughty, impulsive, irrepressible, and (to her family) very lovable. One Saint Nicholas Day she is so very, very naughty that she seems to have finally gone too far. Her mother tells her she will receive no presents.
That night, a sad Kersti dreams she meets St. Nicholas. In her dream, she persuades him to give her a gift despite her naughty behavior. Imagine her delight when she wakes up and sees that she has a present, after all.
The first few scenes in this vintage children’s book are charming and colorful, but the rest of the book wasn’t my cup of tea. I found it flat and repetitive. I would have liked Kersti better if some of her pranks hadn’t been so selfish. I also would have preferred a better portrayal of the meaning of grace (it doesn’t just mean that you get to do whatever you want without consequences because you are so cute and irrepressible). Kersti never repents. She just befuddles the adults until they don't know how to handle her. I was looking for a good Christmas book to read to my kids, but this one isn’t it.
That night, a sad Kersti dreams she meets St. Nicholas. In her dream, she persuades him to give her a gift despite her naughty behavior. Imagine her delight when she wakes up and sees that she has a present, after all.
The first few scenes in this vintage children’s book are charming and colorful, but the rest of the book wasn’t my cup of tea. I found it flat and repetitive. I would have liked Kersti better if some of her pranks hadn’t been so selfish. I also would have preferred a better portrayal of the meaning of grace (it doesn’t just mean that you get to do whatever you want without consequences because you are so cute and irrepressible). Kersti never repents. She just befuddles the adults until they don't know how to handle her. I was looking for a good Christmas book to read to my kids, but this one isn’t it.
December 3, 2024
Dutch culture ✔️
Entertaining? Not really
Good lesson? Not at all
Entertaining? Not really
Good lesson? Not at all
December 3, 2014
Really, I wish I could give this book 4.5 stars. I only took off a little bit because I didn't the think the ending was quite as developed as it could have been. But Kersti is such a wonderful character and Hilda van Stockum portrayal of life is so bang-on, that this book (set in a family of 7 girls!) made a great read-aloud even for a family (like ours) with 7 boys. This one's going on our list of Christmas favorites.
December 7, 2016
I'm so glad I found this book--I will definitely be rereading it every Christmas. I particularly wanted to find a Saint Nicholas Day story, to have something more Christmasy than books actually about Saint Nicholas for Saint Nicholas Day. But whenever you read it, this is a delightful story about an utterly charming rascal of a four year old—in the way only a four year old can be.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews