The Thin Santa Claus: The Chicken Yard That Was a Christmas Stocking

Mrs. Gratz wakes on Christmas morning to find her chicken coop empty, robbed of every hen. But there, in the corner of the ransacked henhouse, lies a worn black wallet fat with nine hundred dollars. When a thin, shifty stranger appears at her back door, first claiming to be a poultry buyer, then a tuberculosis inspector, then a detective, Mrs. Gratz knows something is deeply wrong. She suspects the man is connected to the robbery. Yet despite the missing chickens and the suspicious stranger hovering around her farm, this strange Christmas morning might just turn out to be the finest one she's ever had. Butler's gentle, wry tale blends holiday warmth with a light-footed mystery, led by a heroine whose cheerful stubbornness and unwavering belief in Santa Claus are as amusing as they are endearing. It's a story about what happens when generosity arrives in the strangest package, and how faith in goodness can survive even when chickens disappear.