Amazon.com (ISBN 0060081759, Hardcover)

Greeting card designer Mary Engelbreit, who transitioned into picture book illustrator with best-selling The Night Before Christmas, pens the first of a series of stories about likable young Ann Estelle. Ann, the self-appointed Queen of Christmas, has been working on "The List" since just after Christmas last year. After all, if she forgets anything, "that would make Christmas not quite as wonderful as it should be." So, although she has a marvelous time ice-skating with Grandma, perhaps a sparkly red skating outfit would make it better. And going sledding with her father on his old wooden sled is great, but still, it might be nice to have a brand-new plastic one.

It might sound as though Ann Estelle should really be called the Spoiled Princess of Christmas, but in truth, she’s just a normal little girl bedazzled by the "golden gift-getting opportunity" of Christmas. And--with no parental prodding whatsoever--our little heroine closes the story with the kind of moral every parent would like to hear: "Oh, Dad, it’s not just the presents that matter. Don’t you know that?" (Ages 4 to 8) --Emilie Coulter