Dasher (Animated Special Cover Edition)
How a Brave Little Doe Changed Christmas Forever
$23.61
- Hardcover
40 pages
- Release Date
28 September 2026
Summary
Return to the beloved Christmas story of Dasher—now with an exclusive poster and ornaments featuring art from the animated special!
Dasher is an adventurous young reindeer with a wish in her heart. She spends her days with her family under the hot sun in a traveling circus, but she longs for a different life—one where there is snow beneath her hooves and the North Star above her head. One day, when the opportunity arises, Dasher seizes her destiny and takes off in pur…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781536255058 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 153625505X |
| Author: | Matt Tavares |
| Publisher: | Candlewick Press,U.S. |
| Imprint: | Candlewick Press,U.S. |
| Format: | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages: | 40 |
| Release Date: | 28 September 2026 |
| Weight: | 522g |
| Dimensions: | 10mm x 283mm x 249mm |
| Series: | Dasher |
| Audience Age: | 4-8 |
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Critics Review
Tavares excels at Christmas stories (Red & Lulu, The Gingerbread Pirates), and young readers are apt to inhale every word of this yarn. As an illustrator, Tavares is a master of dramatic light, emotion and mood, as well as deep, vibrant color, whether he’s depicting Dasher’s family penned in at the circus or Santa’s sleigh magically lifting up into the air. Dasher is sure to join the stacks of enduring Christmas favorites read by families year after year.
—BookPage (starred review)
Gorgeous illustrations make this one sure to fly off shelves “like the down of a thistle.”
—Kirkus Reviews
Richly colored illustrations in watercolor, gouache, pencil, and pastel delineate the history of how Dasher volunteered to pull Santa’s sleigh and help him bring joy to children on Christmas. Readers will enjoy this lush new holiday tale that focuses on Santa’s original reindeer.
—Booklist Online
Happily for all, a bit of magic assists gift delivery, and Santa’s gratitude leads to granted wishes and a reindeer reunion. Tavares’s classically painted figures are lit by moonlight and falling snow in this cozy antidote to holiday hullabaloo.
—Publishers Weekly
Dasher’s personality is clearly conveyed through her fervent wish for a better life, and her love of her family…and of carrots. Tavares’s painterly watercolor, gouache, pencil, and pastel illustrations reflect the pleasantly nostalgic tone used throughout this Santa’s-reindeer origin story.
—The Horn Book
Matt Tavares’s Dasher is magical. Kids are going to love this story for decades to come.
—Colby Sharp, co-founder of Nerdy Book Club
Matt Tavares
Matt Tavares is the author-illustrator of the New York Times best-selling picture book Dasher and its sequels, Dasher Can’t Wait for Christmas and Dasher and the Polar Bear, as well as Red and Lulu, the graphic novel Hoops, and several sports biographies, including Becoming Babe Ruth and Growing Up Pedro.
He is also the illustrator of Twenty-One Steps: Guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by Jeff Gottesfeld, The Gingerbread Pirates by Kristin Kladstrup, ’Twas the Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore, and Over the River and Through the Wood by L. Maria Child, among many other picture books.
Matt Tavares lives in Ogunquit, Maine.
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