A St. Nicholas Story: The Fiercest Little Animal In The Forest

This book is well written and beautifully illustrated!!! I read it every year multiple times to my little people as well as my kids at school. I am a school librarian for a small Catholic, classical school and am always reading beautiful Saint stories on the appropriate feast day.The story tells of a rather naughty forest animal, the pine marten who runs into none other than St. Nicholas who gives him a purpose and puts him to work. He helps poor people by delivering food and gold coins. It is a sweet story best for k-2 and preschool. The kids love this book and the pictures are simply gorgeous!!Any book where St. Nicholas looks like the proper Bishop that he actually was is a five star!!!!!

A very sweet story. The simplicity of the message creates so much fodder for good conversation with little ones. I am glad I purchased this.

This is a perfect story for reading at bedtime in winter, snuggled under the covers with a young child. Thinking back to my days of bedtime story reading, I know what my girls would have said, in chorus, when I'd finished reading this book aloud; "Again, daddy, again!" In few words, Ms. Reinhart draws us into caring for the fierce but also fear-ful pine marten, and venerating the wise and kindly Saint. Those familiar with Waldorf education will note what my Waldorf-educated children would call a "waldorfian" cast to the illustrations, by Ms. Reinhart's son, Patrick, himself a Waldorf graduate. These lovely drawings fuel the reader's imagination and make one feel they have accompanied the characters on their journey. If your children are young, buy two copies; you'll wear out the first before they tire of this book.

It is so hard to find a secular St.Nicholas story and I’m so glad to have found this one! We don’t do Santa, but rather teach our children the origin of Santa/St.Nicholas and the “gift of giving”. This book does a great job at teaching that! It also did not have any printing errors as reported in previous reviews.

Excellent book. Our daughter (2 1/2) enjoyed this as a Christmas gift. The illustrations are top-notch, the writing is great for young children. Our daughter will not let us put this book away with the Christmas decorations. She often will sit and read her "Santa book" as she calls it now.Very happy we purchased this. If the author ever releases a hard cover (especially a board-book style) version, would love to purchase it. Just a bit worried about the longevity of a paperback in our house.