A Kidnapped Santa Claus [Hardcover]

Alex Robinson (Author)

List Price:	CDN$ 18.99
Price:	CDN$ 14.92 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 25. Details
You Save:	CDN$ 4.07 (21%)
	o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

Usually ships within 1 to 3 months.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca. Gift-wrap available.

	Amazon Price	New from	Used from
Hardcover	CDN $12.85	--	--
Hardcover, Oct 26 2009	CDN $14.92	--	--
See # more hardcovers

Paperback	CDN $4.73	--	--
See # more paperbacks

Unknown Binding	--	--	--
See # more other formats

Product Details

Hardcover: 72 pages
Publisher: It Books (Oct 26 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061782408
ISBN-13: 978-0061782404
Product Dimensions: 18.7 x 13.3 x 1.2 cm
Shipping Weight: 249 g
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #597,599 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

First published in 1904, "A Kidnapped Santa Claus" by L. Frank Baum, the author of The Wizard of Oz, describes the action of some uncommon events in the land of Santa. Not far from the Laughing Valley where Santa and all his magical helpers live, and beyond the Forest of Burzee, there stands a huge mountain that contains the Cave of Demons. Each demon has a specialty: Selfishness, Envy, Hatred, Malice, and Repentance. Because the promise of Santa puts all girls and boys on their best behavior, the demons have hardly any visitors to their caves. In order to remedy their dismal foot traffic, they conspire to kidnap Santa! But oh! even when it looks as if the demons might win, one can never underestimate the power of devoted (and magical!) friends.

Adapted by Alex Robinson, author of several graphic novels, the action and menace of the tale will be enhanced and lightly spoofed. It seems a most appropriate treatment of Baum's work -- he was an author who often let his profound and unsettling meanings roil beneath the surface of his otherwise fanciful stories.

About the Author

Alex Robinson's books include Box Office Poison, Tricked, Alex Robinson's Lower Regions, and Too Cool to Be Forgotten. He lives in New York City with his wife and their pets, Krimpet and Wrigley.

Tag this product

(What's this?)

Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items.

Customer Reviews

There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.ca

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

Share your experience with this product with others

Create your own review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com ^(beta)

Amazon.com: 4.3 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Spirited Adaptation of a Minor Christmas "Classic", Nov 26 2009

By Evil Wylie "Author, Blogger" - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: A Kidnapped Santa Claus (Hardcover)

There's a reason that L. Frank Baum's "A Kidnapped Santa Claus" has always been less than classic when it comes to Christmas tales: The mythology is too much to grasp in the span of a short story. The "daemons" that kidnap Santa go by the names of Selfishness, Envy, Hatred, and Repentance (a fifth, Malice, is not included in Robinson's adaptation). As a way to teach children the perilousness of vices, "A Kidnapped Santa Claus" would seem to have a daunting task.

Baum goes several steps further, though, complicating matters with layers of original mythology. His Santa doesn't live at the North Pole--instead, he lives in Laughing Valley on the border of the Forest of Burzee. Instead of elves, he's assisted by knooks, ryls, fairies, and pixies. Over the course of Baum's novel "The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus," things are easier to understand. As a standalone tale, though, there's too much going on.

Comic book artist Alex Robinson does an admirable job, illustrating Baum's story with beautiful black-and-white line art. His original dialogue and creations are welcome additions, updating the story for modern readers. (One of the Santa's fairies, Wisk, is now a female with a crush on her co-worker Kilter, providing some much-needed humor.) Still, Robinson can't solve the central problem of the short story, which is that it is ends up too complicated for a children's book...and too silly for adults to appreciate. It's probably better suited to an animated film--it would be interesting to see what Tim Burton (or even Pixar or Dreamworks) could do with Baum's story, Robinson's new creations, and 90 minutes of screen time.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Kidnap the Sandy Claws!, Dec 4 2009

By J. Alford - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: A Kidnapped Santa Claus (Hardcover)

Harper Collins released this small hardcover graphic novel based on L. Frank Baum's original book, A Kidnapped Santa Claus, adapted by Alex Robinson(Box Office Poison). The book was a followup to Baum's The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus which told Santa's origins. In this story, Santa gets captured by some evil demons, so a bunch his elves and fairy friends(including Zurline)mount a rescue. This actually turned out to be a great comic for young readers, and I highly recommend it as a holiday gift.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars classic Robinson, Nov 3 2009

By Yermo - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: A Kidnapped Santa Claus (Hardcover)

Alex fills out this short story with such thought and care that I wish it was longer! I love that the morality story brings everyone, even the "bad" kids to become "good." The stark black and white artwork gives the story another good vs bad edge. It's a classic story that you should read to your kids before they go to bed on Christmas Eve.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 3 reviews 4.3 out of 5 stars