About this item
Did you know that Santa Claus returns to the North Pole 1,756 times during Christmas Eve? Or that he averages about 75 million miles over the course of 31 hours? Back in 1000 AD his sleigh was originally made of bone and ivory, but now it's entirely constructed of graphite and stainless steel, even providing a durable swivel seat!Indeed, there has never been anything quite like Flight of the Reindeer. Most, if not all writers, have approached the adored Santa Claus tale in a variety of ways, but none have tried to explore the reasons behind it. Robert Sullivan provides documentation from Santalogists, historians, zoologists, and Arctic explorers to confirm that flying reindeer are anything but a myth, and that Santa Claus does, in fact, make his trek around the globe each Christmas Eve.
About the Author
Robert Sullivan has written several books on his own and dozens in his day job as Managing Editor of LIFE Books. The late Frank McCourt once said that reading Sullivan was "like sitting by the fire with a lively and scholarly seanchie, as satisfying as a pint of Guinness or a Connemara sunset." Thomas Keneally called Sullivan "a writer of great charm." His books include a baseball memoir and a golf collection, but closest to his heart are three collaborations with the artist Glenn Wolff: Atlantis Rising, Flight of the Reindeer and the soon-to-be-published A Child's Christmas in New England. Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, called Flight of the Reindeer "a charming new Christmas classic," and the book became a TV movie, The Christmas Secret, in which Beau Bridges played Santa and Richard Thomas was, well, the Sullivan character. It was perhaps inevitable that Sullivan and Wolff would approach Christmas again, and this time it is with a memoir of life north of Boston in 1950s and '60s. Some folks have already said nice things about A Child's Christmas in New England:
* "The childhood memories that the father tells his daughter in this warm and wonderful book can't help but bring back similar memories for other parents - memories they, too, will be inspired to share with their own children." - Daniel Okrent, author of Last Call and The Way We Were: New England Then, New England Now
* "Master collaborators Robert Sullivan and Glenn Wolff have done it again! This time, they breathe inspired life into the ghosts of Christmas past, capturing the good old days when Christmas was always white, the snow really was waist-high, the turkey was perfectly cooked, the tinsel shimmered on a towering tree, and the sledding runs went on forever. When I reached The End, I felt that same empty-full-happy-sad feeling that used to wash over me after the last present under the tree had been unwrapped and I'd begin counting the days till Christmas came again." - George Howe Colt, author of The Big House and Brothers
* "Who could have guessed that Christmas memories from the epoch of paisley couches, of young boys with paper routes, of wall phones that ring only in the event of an emergency, of multicolored plastic toothpicks on holiday hors d'oeuvres plates, of a kid designated as "Husky" rather than as obese, of Erector sets and Christmas tree tinsel, and of the guarantee of snow in December - could be so charmingly told, so magically illustrated, as if arising from a village in a folk-tale? Wistful, gentle, and surprising, this sweet book is like a gift-box of holiday peppermints, filling a room with merriment and sparkle." - Melissa Fay Greene, author of Praying for Sheetrock and No Biking in the House Without a Helmet
Sullivan no longer lives in Massachusetts but in Westchester County, New York, with with his wife, three children an
