Santa Through the Window

by Taro Gomi

When Santa decides to peek through windows to see what animal lives in each house, the gifts he selects aren't what anyone expected. Illustrations feature die cut windows through which rooms can be partially viewed.

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

Library Binding

First published November 1, 1983

About the author

Taro Gomi (五味太郎) is a major children’s illustrator and writer. He has more than 400 book titles to his credit. His work has been widely translated into 15 other languages.


Tarō was born in Tokyo and he graduated from ID department, Kuwazawa Design Institute. His readers range from babies to adults, with an equal number of fans overseas. His work has been appreciated considerably with both domestic and international honours such as the Sankei Jido Shuppan Bunka Award, Bologna Children's Book Fair Award among others.


Along with authoring children's books, he is well-known in the fields of Stationery design, clothing design, production of young children's animated videos, CD-ROMs, essays etc.


His popular books published in English include Everyone Poops, Santa Through the Window, Where's the Fish?, My Friends and The Crocodile and the Dentist.

Reviews

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A million stars. This book has everything—fantastic illustrations, a guessing game, zaniness, and a happy morning with presents. Taro Gomi is a treasure.

[Bhargavi Balachandran · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an ingenious book! And such adorable illustrations. I am so glad I picked this up. Great way to teach kids that things are not always the way they seem.

[Melissa McAlvey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has been a favorite for two years now. Both girls enjoy Santa getting the presents a little mixed up.

[Jack & Lily Wills · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really didn’t care for this book, but my kids requested to read it every day after we opened it for our Christmas advent books.

[Alex Baugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poor Santa! Christmas Eve sure is a really busy night for him, there are just so many presents to be delivered before morning. To save time at each house, he just looks in the window to see who lives there and tosses in what he thinks is an appropriate gift. But, uh-oh, Santa, you should have slowed down and looked more closely because you left the wrong gifts for everyone everywhere. Kids will love looking through the cut-out windows with Santa, but when the page is turned, they can see Santa's mistake. No matter, it all works out in the end. This makes a great read aloud, and my kids loved trying to guess who really lived inside each house before turning the page and seeing what gift should have been left for them. The only hard thing for them to grasp was why Santa used a helicopter instead of a sleigh with reindeer.

[Asho · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was on a "Best Children's Christmas Books" list I came across on the internet, so I put it on hold at the library so we could check it out. I agree that it's a cute Christmas story. Santa (who charmingly arrives on a helicopter, for some reason) looks through the window of each house but sees only a portion of the inhabitant(s) inside, which leads to some confusion in the gift-giving. All three of my kids, including the 8-month-old, enjoyed the cut-out windows in the book, although only the 6-year-old fully grasped the concept of Santa making humorous errors. Baby F particularly enjoyed this book. It was one of the first that held her attention for an extended period of time.

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love, Love the window cut outs in the book. The colors are vibrant and glossy. Unlike other Santa's, this Santa has a pink outfit and it arrives in a helicopter. The diverse children in this book use the different forms of intelligence they have. It is unique in its on way and it leaves out a strong message about sharing.

[Mama Bearian · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this unusual version of Santa, he flies a helicopter, wears a pink suit, and peeks in the windows to decide what presents to leave. As he peeks in the windows in this book (cutouts), he misinterprets what he sees inside, which causes him to leave the wrong presents. But don't worry, it all works out in the end. Funny and quirky, with bold illustrations.

[Ashley Adkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creative story and the "windows" in the book make it fun to guess what is on the next page. I love the positive ending and twist on the gifts. I just wish the illustrations were a little more detailed.

[Carmine · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quirky little Santa story involving Santa peeking through windows, making mistakes about who is inside and tossing presents through the window. It was demanded repeatedly for rereading by a two and four year old.

[Molly Cluff (Library!) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like the message in this one about appreciating what you're given, rather than expecting Santa to read your mind. There are cute window cut-outs where you look through at who is inside. Santa keeps mixing up who he thinks is inside.

[Lynn Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a delightful story, cleverly made with cutout windows. Santa goes by each house on Christmas Eve and judges what the gift should be that he leaves by what he sees through the windows. He misinterprets what he sees, making for a funny story.

[Grant Hohlbein · Rating 4 out of 5]

This silly Santa Claus hasn’t learned that not everything is what it seems when you have a narrow perspective! I liked this one. Fun and creative. And I love how all the gift receivers still find a way to enjoy their “wrong” presents!

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intentional cutouts in the illustrations give Santa the wrong perspective of who he is leaving presents for, but all is well in the end.

Clever!

[Amanda Blau · Rating 5 out of 5]

The animals get the wrong presents when Santa sees just part of them through the windows.
Happy Christmas fun.

[Josie Stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Young children will probably be able to read this one independently. It is a fun, mixed up Santa story. It is humorous and has an element of guessing what is behind the window.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

simple and laugh-out-loud funny.

[Seema Rao · Rating 3 out of 5]

Abstracted paper collages tell the story of a Christmas night and a special visitor.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's funny!

[Yvonne O'Connor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a fantastic book to read with my girls and have them guessing at what’s really in each house. The added bonus is that everyone makes the “wrong” presents work!

[Aislinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Silly, cute and clever!

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this- love the art style and the story itself. Very cute- I plan to read this next Christmas!

[Adriana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Goofy. Whimsical. Non-sensical and I loved it.

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not much to it...

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very silly. I think my kids were mostly confused, but they did enjoy the fact that everyone ends up happy in the end.

[Tiff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love Gomi's illustrations. Fun is in the air with Santa delivering presents during Christmas.

[Brittany]

This one is fun. Santa gets things wrong seeing only a portion of the picture.

[Haley Kilgour · Rating 4 out of 5]

Certainly not what you were expecting (or Santa for that matter. But it was fun to see how it all worked out in the end.

[Suzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a creative concept! My 8 and 11 yos enjoyed this book and do did I!

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun book for toddlers