The Christmas Coal Man

By Joe Kulka

The Coal Man works hard all year, searching dark mines for the coal that Santa Claus drops into the stockings of naughty boys and girls. He's saving up money to take himself, his mule, and his trusty canary to a sunny island.

This year, when the Coal Man makes his delivery to the North Pole, he gets a big surprise. Santa's not using coal anymore! Will the Coal Man ever get his day in the sun? With a little Christmas magic, he just might.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lerner Publishing
• Release date: Sep 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781467790536

Joe Kulka

Joe Kulka has written and illustrated My Crocodile Does Not Bite, Vacation's Over! Return of the Dinosaurs, and the award-winning book Wolf's Coming!. Joe lives in Quakertown, Pennsylvania.

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Reviews for The Christmas Coal Man

[carlathelibrarian · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Christmas Coal Man by Joe Kulka is a new read aloud book for Christmas. There are some great lessons in this book like having a dream and working towards it, getting rewarded for a job well done, being rewarded for being a good boy or girl, and having a consequence for being naughty. The illustrations were great. The expressions on the face of the coal man really showed his feelings. I loved the depiction of Jenny the mule, she was almost human like in her facial expressions. This was a weak 4 stars, it is really more of a 3.5 because I just think the story was too short and there was something missing. I do think children will love the story and the pictures though.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in return for an honest review.