Rudolph Shines Again

September 14, 2015
Caparo follows his 2014 reimagining of May’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with a handsomely illustrated sequel, originally published in 1954. Rudolph is once again ostracized by his peers and assigned the worst tasks in Santa’s workshop, and his confidence plummets: “ ‘Oh poor little me,’ he would pity and pout./ Till one day the light in his nose just went out!” Determined to start anew, Rudolph runs away and lands in a forest, where he rescues a pair of lost rabbit siblings and soars home in time to guide Santa’s sleigh through snow and fog once more. There are some clumsy lines as the story unfolds (“Just picture the Mother and Dad Rabbits’ joy,/ When Rudolph brought back both their girl and their boy!”), but Caparo’s images are again distinguished by cinematic stagings and dramatic lighting. Ages 4–6. Illustrator’s agency: Shannon Associates.

October 1, 2015

PreS-Gr 2-May penned the original tale of the plucky reindeer with the shining nose for the Montgomery Ward department stores to give away to customers in 1939, and it became a huge hit. In 1954 he published the sequel, originally titled Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Shines Again. A Little Golden Book version was also published in 1982. It's Christmas again, and Rudolph is having a hard time. His fellow reindeer and the elves are all jealous of him and treat him badly, which causes him to sulk and whine, and suddenly, his nose stops glowing. Thoroughly disheartened, he runs off to the woods, where he encounters a large and unhappy rabbit family, worried about their two missing children. Rudolph offers to search and uses his eyes and ears to avoid predators and find the lost bunnies. After he safely returns them, he decides to go back and help Santa any way he can, and because he's given up his whining and weeping, by the time he gets back to the North Pole, his glow has returned. Caparo's painterly illustrations are both lush and Disney-esque, and even the darkest images gleam with an internal light. Parents and grandparents will most appreciate the very evident moral of the tale. VERDICT An old-fashioned holiday story, presented in a most cinematic way.-Mara Alpert, Los Angeles Public Library

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