The Christmas Sweater

October 26, 2009
The radio and TV host's debut picture book repackages his adult novel of the same name into a short parable. Eddie wants a bike for Christmas, but his twinkly-eyed grandpa tells him that he doesn't see a bike in the boy's future, but rather a Christmas sweater. When a disappointed Eddie takes a dream journey to a snowy forest, he opens a package containing the sweater and is whisked into a procession of idyllic Christmastime moments with his mother, father and grandpa. In the morning, it's the sweater he's excited about, not the shiny bike. Dorman's warm, vintage-style digital illustrations complement Beck's unambiguous message. Ages 4–7.

December 21, 2009
Beck channels his softer side to offer a Christmas parable featuring 12-year old Eddie, whose hopes for a shiny new bicycle for Christmas are dashed when he finds an ugly, handmade sweater waiting for him under the tree. Eddie pitches a fit, dismaying his hardworking single mother—but will he regret his ingratitude when older? Naturally. There are no surprises in this contrived story, which is further doomed by Beck's ham-handed and histrionic reading. The maudlin material would have been better served by a seasoned narrator capable of conveying believability and evoking genuine feeling. A Threshold hardcover.

November 10, 2008
In Beck's debut novel, the conservative radio and TV host (An Inconvenient Book) makes a weak attempt at a holiday classic in the vein of It's a Wonderful Life. Despite his single mother's financial hardships, 12-year-old Eddie is certain this Christmas he will receive his much-desired Huffy bike. To his dismay, what he finds under the tree is "a stupid, handmade, ugly sweater" that his mother carefully modeled after those she can't afford at Sears (one of four places she keeps part-time jobs). Eddie tosses the sweater and insults his mother before the two go visit his grandparents at their farmouse. On the drive home, though, Eddie's exhausted mother falls asleep at the wheel and crashes, dying instantly. Sent to live with his grandparents, an increasingly bitter and angry Eddie lashes out at his accommodating guardians, engages in typical teenage angst and grapples with belief in God. For all his focus on traditional family virtues like respect, love and forgiveness, Beck's lightweight parable cruises on predictability, repetition and sentimentality.