Tom Wingo is an unemployed South Carolinian football coach whose internist wife is having an affair with a pompous cardiac man. A mind-expander, perkily illustrated with woodcuts by Julie Scott.Ī flabby, fervid melodrama of a high-strung Southern family from Conroy ( The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline), whose penchant for overwriting once again obscures a genuine talent. Now Pete’s genius is put to good purpose in helping Nick provide gifts to the needy. Pete, his jailer, helped him escape and joined him as an equal partner, eventually coming to New Amsterdam. Nicholas was born 1,600 years ago, while Pete, born a slave in Spain under the Moors, was a kind of all-purpose genius who earned his freedom at 18, went through various occupations and studies in Seville, and (during the Inquisition) fell in with St. Grandfather still mourns his wife’s death and doesn’t attend family functions.

His mother is a librarian at the Countee Cullen branch of the New York City Library. Terence, raised in black culture with Miles Davis’s “Sketches of Spain” playing in the background, has attended Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. Terence, now married to Cassandra, was only seven when his silver-haired grandfather took him on as copilot of his city bus on its 12-mile route and related to the boy the history of various African, Indian, and Dutch landmarks, especially those’such as St. Nick and black Pete, who stand side-by-side atop Terrence’s Christmas tree in Harlem. That's when the grandfather's running genealogy lesson, based on author Christopher Moore's own family history, arrives at its final destination: the story of Santa and Pete.Ī truly magical tale, Santa & Pete will take you and your family back to the heart of Christmas.The Commissioner of New York City Landmarks (historian Moore) and a senior editor of Essence (Johnson) team up for a biracial Christmas story about white St. What unfolds is a series of wonderful adventures that culminate on Christmas Eve, when the bus gets stuck in a snowstorm. The story starts with a bus driver who takes his grandson along on Saturdays as he travels a historical route in New York City. Now Santa & Pete restores the legacy in delightful style and delivers an inspiring message of hope and harmony among people. But through the years, Pete's contribution was forgotten. These two forever changed the way families celebrate the holiday. Who would ever guess that the beloved legend of Santa Claus involves a seldom-told tale of faith and friendship between two men - one white and one black? Long ago, Santa Claus had an African partner named Pete and together they brought the spirit of Christmas to America's first settlers.

Santa & Pete by Christopher Paul Moore