Snowy's Christmas by Sally Murphy

Ill. by David Murphy. Random House, 2009. ISBN 9781741664416.
(Ages 5-8) Picture book. This addition to the sackful of Christmas stories landing on my desk this time of the year, will find a home in many school libraries as it indirectly deals with the idea of the Australian Christmas song, Six White Boomers.
Snowy is different from the rest of his mob. He is white, and rejected by his peers. Miserably drinking at the billabong, his mother comforts him saying that one day the others will want to be him. A large white kangaroo appears and takes him to meet a mob of white kangaroos, and before you know it, Santa has arrived looking for six white kangaroos to pull his sleigh over Australia. Snowy's difference is needed and when the 6 white kangaroos are harnessed together, Santa pull his sleigh over Snowy's clearing so that all those kangaroos that teased him can see what he is doing. Predictably, they all call out that they would like to be him.
Neatly resolved, this story can be added to those that extol differences as well as being useful for the time of the year it is designed to promote, and its Australianess makes it another in a growing group of books targeting the overseas market.
Fran Knight