Learning to trust again after a tremendous loss is quite a feat, one that may even require a little magic. This graphic novel gives readers ages eight to 12 a window into how a family can begin to heal after the death of a loved one. It brilliantly couches this wisdom in a lively, funny, sometimes preposterous tale of a nearly 12-year-old girl who meets Donner, one of Santa's reindeer, and goes on surprising adventures.
The girl's name is Virginia, as in "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus," the famous words from Francis P. Church's 1897 editorial in The New York Sun. After her mother's death, she and her father move to Denver to live with her aunt. On the way, their car gets a flat tire. While her father struggles to repair it, Virginia goes on a walk, encounters Donner, and accidentally winds up taking the compass he needs in order to navigate back to Santa on Christmas Eve.
This loss for Donner endangers more than just Christmas gifts: "Try as he might, without all eight reindeer, Mr. Claus can't make all his deliveries, and when that happens ... children stop believing." The mayhem and magic that ensues brings in a friendly and perpetually hungry neighbor boy, an old-fashioned department store with genuine elves disguised as ordinary holiday assistants, a trapper intent on capturing Donner, and even the Continental Air Defense Command Center.
Author and illustrator Bobby Podesta includes funny reality checks, like when the boy's sister witnesses Virginia flying on Donner's back. Astounded, she gasps: "You ... flew. Up in the air. ... On that flying reindeer. Can it talk?" And her brother quips back. "Don't be ridiculous, Gloria. It's a flying reindeer, NOT some Disney movie."
But interwoven with the humor and delicious suspense, Virginia slowly starts to come to grips with why her father imposed an unwanted move on her after her mother's death. She gets a chance to feel less alone, to regain trust, and to understand that, in Francis P. Church's words, "sometimes the most real things in this world are things you can't see."
Bobby Podesta has been drawing cartoons for longer than he can remember. In 1997 he joined Pixar Animation Studios, where he has contributed as animator, story artist, supervising animator, and director on several films and TV series, including "Finding Nemo," "The Incredibles," and "Inside Out." He lives in Oakland, California with his wife, daughter, son, a few chickens, a spoiled cat and a couple of pretty cute dogs.
