Who’s That Knocking on Christmas Eve? by Jan Brett
This book is another example of Jan Brett’s wonderful stories and incredible illustrations. The illustrations alone tell their own story and children quickly figure out that by looking at the pictures on one page, that they are getting a glimpse of what is going to happen later on in the story. In this book, Kyri is getting ready for a Christmas feast, but she is worried that the trolls who have often spoiled their Christmas dinner are going to come and raid their house again tonight. She ends up having a welcomed unexpected visitor, a boy from Finnmark and his ice bear. They are sampling some Christmas food when the trolls do invade, but what the trolls don’t see is the ice bear asleep under the wood stove. When the ice bear hears all of the commotion he springs out from under the stove and the trolls scurry away, but not without having made a huge mess in the meantime. Those trolls might not come back for years to come though now that they think Kyri has an ice bear living with her.
