Product Description

Using glowing, hypnotic images and a funny, provocative text, the narrator relives his father's most amazing childhood Christmas. A moody young boy sees himself as the "Red Ranger from Mars, " his hero from the movie serials, and cannot picture life without the gift of a Red Ranger bicycle. Full color.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8646 in Books
• Published on: 1997-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 32 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780316102490
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
For Breathed (A Wish for Wings That Work; Goodnight Opus), 'tis the season to be laugh-out-loud funny one page and cause a tiny tear to well in a reader's eye the next. Retelling the autobiographical story that his late father related every Christmas Eve, Breathed introduces a cynical young man (self-named The Red Ranger of Mars) who meets his match in a retired Santa (When Red snaps, "They say you're Santa Claus," the old man retorts that Santa is "a foolish story for small children. He's a big jolly bribe to control their criminal instincts"). Breathed's hallucinatory artwork is as wondrous and as unpredictable as his tale. Reaffirming a reader's belief in the spirit that is Santa, this could become a perennial seller. All ages.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gr. 3-5, younger for reading aloud. Spending the Christmas season with his aunt on a "damp little island somewhere off the country's upper left-hand corner," Red discovers that the reclusive, ill, and ancient man living nearby is Santa Claus. Red (short for his hero Buck Tweed, the Red Ranger of Mars) is too jaded to believe in Santa, and yet when the Santa asks him to believe, he tries. On Christmas morning, hoping against hope for his heart's desire, a Buck Tweed bicycle, Red finds instead a treasure unlooked for, within himself. While Breathed, author/artist of the cartoon strip "Bloom County," often seems to look over the heads of children to wink at the adults in the audience, there's enough that's childlike to keep kids involved, whether its the reassuring homeliness of the hero or his wholehearted longing for the bicycle. The extraordinary, full-color illustrations seem three-dimensional and will intrigue children and adults alike. A most original Christmas book. Carolyn Phelan

From Kirkus Reviews
Breathed, creator of the popular ``Bloom County'' comic strip, writes of the transformation of a sour-faced little boy (Breathed's father) during the Depression. In 1939, Red Breathed is a nine-year-old cynic who has been disappointed too many times by the adults in his life to take them seriously. When he meets a retired, aging Santa Claus, he has no expectations. But Santa gains Red's conditional trust with a small miracle only to fail him in a big one--getting Red an Official Buck Tweed Two-Speed Crime-Stopper Star- Hopper bicycle. When he doesn't find his bicycle on Christmas morning, Red goes to bawl out Santa but finds that he can't disappoint the old man by telling him the truth. He ends up comforting him instead, and when Red goes home he discovers that Santa had come through for him--in a way- -after all. Breathed's drawings are at their comic best. If the final plot twist hinges on a bad pun, all is forgiven after the last surprise picture. (Picture book. All ages) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

A Cure for Cynicism
I'll confess right here ... it's usually tough for me to get into the Christmas spirit. And most Christmas books for kids strike me as either lame attempts to rehash worn-out imagery... or stories which are really written for adults to recapture some "warm fuzzies" from their memory banks (never mind the kids, thank you).

This book must contain some powerful stuff ... if it can get a cynical crumudgeon like me to read it over and over to my son. Breathed begins his story with the moping, skeptical, don't-trust- anyone-too-much attitude which I immediately find familiar. But... then ... he magically weaves an unlikely tale which transforms that feeling into one of genuine hope. The "Santa" character is wonderfully (and appropriately) ambiguous. The reader,as well as the story's narrator, is not quite sure whether this guy is the real thing -- or yet another impostor. He doesn't fit the mold, that's for sure. But he does come through (at least it seems it was him) in the end. Oh sleighbells! Don't just take my word for it, read the gosh-darn thing, marvel at Breathed's quirky illustrations. And then feel the swell of hope, which is more than just wishing for nifty presents. A sure winner for children of all ages!

Christmas: Belief goes both ways
I remember standing in a bookstore (remember bookstores?) one Christmas season and noticing this book in hardcover on the bottom shelf in the cartoon section. I recognized Berke Breathed's name from Bloom County and thought it'd be worth a look see. I'd missed his sharp sarcastic wit since he retired Bloom County.

I stood there for a good 30 minutes reading the book from cover to cover, every single page. Beautiful, humorous writing; hilarious artwork... and a message. You didn't really get that much during the Bloom County days.

When I got to the end I was in tears. My sister was shopping with me, and I called her over and said, "Read this from the very beginning, every word, don't peak ahead. Stand here until you're done". Soon we both had tears in our eyes

What a funny beautiful way to describe what the love of Christmas does for us:

Sometimes folks need something to believe in.

Sometimes folks need someone to believe in them.

One of the most magically wonderful books ever written!!!!
After reading "The Polar Express" by Chris Van Allsburg, I didn't think I would ever find a more enjoyable storybook. I was wrong. This one ranks along side "Polar..." as one of the greatest storybooks ever - and not only among Christmas stories. The emotions expressed by the children and adults to whom I have read this book are absolutely fantatstic. If you make it through this book without belly-laughing one minute and crying the next, you just aren't alive!!! If you read any storybook in your entire life for pure enjoyment, READ THIS ONE!!!!!!! If it ever comes out again in hardcover, buy it quick. Its a collectible. If it doesn't, buy it in soft-cover. Its still a collectible!