Santa's New Jet

by David Biedrzycki

It's Christmas Eve and the reindeer are out of shape. Santa needs to think fast. Luckily, his elves can build anything. Santa's new jet has all the best features but that isn't always enough. This year, Santa's going to need all the help he can get!!!

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

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

In his early years David created stories for his parents and friends. A commercial artist since 1980, his work has appeared in magazines, newspapers, book covers, billboards and even ice cream boxes. The supermarket is like a gallery of his work.

Now he has now returned to his first love of picture book storytelling. He has illustrated close to 30 books including self-authored and award winning Ace Lacewing, Bug Detective series, Me and My Dragon series and his newest series Breaking News Bear Alert, a Junior Library Guild Selection and winner of book the Illinois Monarch Picture Book Award and the Georgia State Picture Book Award. David travels the world extensively to over 100 schools a year sharing his digital book making process with aspiring young writers, illustrators and readers.

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yeesh. Read this with my 4 year old and regretted every moment. Fat shaming the reindeer? Making Santa unlikeable and incompetent? I was taken back to the scene in The Santa Clause where Scott Calvin is in a Marketing Meeting upset that a toy company is marketing a toy with Total Tank Santa and yells something like "Just what you want to see, Santa rolling down the street in a Panzer". He might as well have taken American Airlines and drove a Budget Rental Car to drop off unwrapped gifts of lightbulbs and an opened box of cigarettes in a Walmart bag to some of the girls and boys, because this book fell SUPER flat. And only the slimmed down reindeer could save Christmas? Yikes.

Spare yourself. Spare your kids. There are a million better Christmas titles. Skip it.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sleigh needs work and the reindeer are out of shape. How is Santa going to deliver any presents? Fortunately, Orville the elf has an idea. The elves build Santa a jet and although the technology seems superior, it’s the little things that Santa misses about the reindeer: like Blitzen being good at knowing what toy to leave or the gentle sleigh bells. And when Santa falls behind, he sends up a Ho Ho Help! flare and the reindeer respond.

I love the illustrations, so wonderfully detailed and humorous.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sleigh and reindeer are not ready for Christmas so Orville the elf has a solution: a Super Santa Sleigh 3000 Jet. It has some drawbacks but generally it works well until a heavy fog sets in. There is a bit of reindeer bashing in the beginning but in the end the reindeer save Christmas. A gently humorous Christmas picture book about Santa.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A first rate picture book. Simple story but with a good sense of humor; the illustrations are charming and funny. My preschooler and I both enjoyed it. Worth reading for the images of out-of-shape reindeer alone.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

While David Biedrzycki's story concept and artwork are both excellent, the end result is not. While the story has some humor, it lacks any action and suspense resulting in a boring book. I wonder if Biedrzycki was trying too hard to keep this book at a low level for preschoolers.

[Sherry Scheline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the reindeer saving Christmas. It was a good short book.

[Liz Lowe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute book about what could happen with Santa.

[Suzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The plot could be stronger, but the illustrations are gorgeous.

[Rosa Cline · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story Santa is getting ready for his Christmas run. His sled is beyond what he feels is repair and his reindeer are all really out of shape. So he asks his head elf to come up with something for him. And he does a high tech jet so Santa takes it out....it's noisey and he can't do the things that he does with his sled and reindeer. So he sends out an SOS they see it up in the North Pole and the reindeer comes to the rescue!

[Kiersten · Rating 3 out of 5]

my two-year-old liked seeing the pictures of Santa's jet, but overall the story fell a little flat. For some reason, I thought the first-person narration (from Santa's POV) was a little jarring.

[Lisa Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cute story about what happens when Santa tries to replace his out of shape reindeer with a brand new jet. Things don't go as planned and the reindeer come in to save the day.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a cute book! My four year old liked it! :)

[Olivia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a silly story about Santa and his reindeer. It's as amusing as this author's other works, but the message is a little weak. Still, it would keep the attention of kids.

[Erica Deb · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story is borderline boring. There is just nothing to it. No magic.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun to read aloud with the littles