A Child’s Christmas in New England debuts
By F. Josephine Arrowood
Sun contributor
Twenty years after the publication of the critically acclaimed children’s book Flight of the Reindeer, Robert Sullivan delivers a second holiday story, artfully wrapped in Glenn Wolff’s colorful, multilayered illustrations. The series of anecdotes and childhood memories of the 1950s and ’60s as told by a father to his daughter, A Child’s Christmas in New England recalls a simpler era: children went outside to play for hours in the snow, no batteries were required, and Santa’s magic seemed quieter and more accessible.
Although this picture book is geared toward children old enough to read the short chapters on their own, its subtle complexities will also engage grownups in a rush of memories long buried. They’ll look back with smiles or nods of new understanding of holiday incidents — such as the somber, late-night telephone call from a father’s war buddy; the sounds of a frustrated Santa in the living room on Christmas Eve, trying to assemble a new Erector set; and strapping on new wooden skis in the backyard.
Glenn Wolff’s illustrations are often highly structured, like a quilt top with the central medallion depicting the main theme, surrounded by secondary panels rich with visual leitmotifs. Perhaps because of the familiar subject matter depicted in most Christmas stories (snowscapes, kids in winter clothing, presents, Santa Claus and holiday decorations), they are comforting: cheery and riotous with color. Yet one of the pleasures of the artist’s work is discovering new details with each subsequent viewing. These may be intriguing, slyly humorous, or slightly alarming (as the drawing of a hand grenade, casually propped up in a chapter heading’s historiated initial), and take Wolff’s art out of the merely decorative or sentimental to a more bracing point of view.
The slower pace of bygone times and traditions that unfolds in these stories was inspired by Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales. It presents a refreshing and effective contrast to today’s hectic, amped up holidays, and may even inspire families to create some of their own, “homemade” family rituals.
Glenn Wolff will sign copies of the book on Saturday, Nov. 30, from noon to 2 p.m. at the Glen Arbor Holiday Marketplace at the Town Hall, and at Dog Ears bookstore in Northport on Dec. 7, from noon to 2 p.m.
