Red Bank author and illustrator Elise Primavera has created a way for children to check their status at the North Pole through a Web site which she created to accompany her two Christmas Auntie Claus picture books.

Yes, Virginia, there is a "Bad Boys and Girls List" compiled by one of Santa’s elves. The list has been around for as long as Santa and if you are a spoiled brat, a crybaby, a whiner or one who doesn’t believe, you’ll find your name on it.

Happily for children like Virginia, local children’s book author and illustrator Elise Primavera has created a way to check their status at the North Pole. And, if they’re on the List, they’ll find out how to get their names off before Christmas Day by visiting www.auntieclaus.com, an Internet spin-off of Primevera’s children’s picture book that has become a modern Christmas classic.

"The Web site has a news flash every day from the North Pole," said Primavera at a recent book signing at Fair Haven Books on River Road. "Children can see what’s happening every day at the North Pole, and they can download a really cool list to write down all the presents they want," added the award-winning illustrator and Red Bank resident.

Primavera created the Web site to accompany her two Christmas picture books, the best-selling Auntie Claus and its just-released sequel, Auntie Claus and the Key to Christmas, both published under the Silver Whistle imprint of Harcourt Inc., New York.

A 40-page picture book geared for children ages 4-8, Auntie Claus has sold some 300,000 hardcover and 100,000 paperback copies to date and has been optioned by Nickelodeon Films. The sequel, Auntie Claus and the Key to Christmas is a Children’s Book-of-the-Month Club Selection.

Primavera has illustrated more than 20 books for children and authored several, including Plantpet, a Parents Magazine Best Book. Her luminous artwork makes Auntie Claus a visual sugarplum for children, even those older than the 4-8 age bracket it is aimed at. In fact, a cast of quirky characters — like Auntie Claus’ canine butler and her bratty great-niece and nephew — and its lightheartedness make the book fun, even for adults.

Auntie Claus is set in New York City, where Sophie Kringle’s mysterious great aunt lives in a penthouse atop the Bing Cherry Hotel. Christmas elements, like the lights that twinkle all year long in Auntie Claus’ apartment, abound at the Bing, where Sophie and the rest of the Kringle family lives.

Each year as Christmas approaches, Auntie Claus leaves on a mysterious business trip and Sophie, who has become increasingly suspicious, determines to discover her great-aunt’s destination.

When she sneaks aboard the penthouse elevator, she begins a magical journey to the North Pole where, among other offbeat characters, she meets Mr. Pudding, the officious elf in charge.

When she finds her brother’s name on the List, Sophie truly begins to understand her great-aunt’s admonition, "It is better to give than to receive."

In the sequel, Auntie Claus and the Key to Christmas, Auntie Claus deals with a family crisis. Christopher Kringle, Sophie’s brother, has doubts about Santa’s existence. Despite his great-aunt’s best efforts, Chris continues to have doubts and determines to find out the truth. With Sophie’s help, he comes to understand his aunt’s advice that the key to Christmas is that "sometimes you have to believe in order to see."

Primavera’s background as a fashion illustrator is evident in Auntie Claus’ detailed artwork and finely drawn characterizations.

"For Auntie Claus, I looked at the work of designers from the 1960s so I would get that degree of realistic detail," she explained. "The story takes place now but I was looking for a very chic style. The character of Auntie Claus is like Auntie Mame and Coco Chanel. That was the era of the diva, the grande dame."

After completing college, Primavera said she found that jobs in her field had dwindled due to the trend to photography and live models in advertisements.

Drawing on her appreciation for the work of renowned 19th-century illustrators Howard Pyle and his student, N.C. Wyeth, Primavera decided to segue into illustrating children’s books.

With portfolio in hand, around 1980, Primavera set about breaking into book illustration, applying to publishing firms for freelance assignments.

"I went to Harper and Row and got a book jacket," she said, "and that started me off. They liked it and gave me a book to illustrate with Margaret McElderry. She was one of the ‘grande dames’ of children’s books."

Primavera created atmospheric pencil drawings for McElderry’s telling of the fable, The Giant’s Apprentice and her career started to build. "One book leads to another," she noted.

With her success came the chance to write children’s books, she said.

"Publishers always ask illustrators if they have ideas," she explained. "They encouraged me and I came up with ideas."

Her first book drew on her life-long interest in horses.

"I wrote a story about a pony and a little girl since I loved riding," she recalled.

Primavera created pencil drawings for Basil and Maggie, which was published in 1983. While she kept busy as an illustrator, she didn’t write a second book until Ralph’s Frozen Tale in 1991.

When she decided to do a Christmas book, Primavera said, she came up with the title first and the entire concept for Auntie Claus sprang to mind.

"As soon as I got the idea, I went right to my editor and she loved it," Primavera said.

Longer than most children’s books (40 pages) and with more detailed illustrations, each Auntie Claus books took two years to complete, she said.

Interest in her book began while she was still at work on the Christmas tale. Before it was even complete, the book was used as the theme for the 1999 holiday windows at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York.

"My agent called up Saks Fifth Avenue. I didn’t even have Auntie Claus finished at that point," she recalled. "I was in the middle of doing it, and I brought some sketches in to show them, and they loved it. Right after that, Nickelodeon optioned it and then the book came out."

Primavera describes her work as "realistic, but funny, with a lot of humor, and kind of offbeat. It has a lot of energy plus I really jampack my work full of ‘stuff,’ " said the artist, who loads her stories with inside jokes and fun visual cues for children.

"Kids are very observant, and they’ll sit there and look for the jokes, the funny things in a drawing," she noted. "So I put things like that in there to make them laugh."

Her role is to enhance the text, she added, and that often means replacing words with images.

"In a really good picture book there’s a lot of things left out in the words. Often, when I get the text, I take out some of the words and supply pictures for them," she explained. "It’s like a poem. You want to get as few words as you can.

"Your audience is children so they’re not going to sit there and read," she continued. "They’re maybe 4, 5, or 6 years old so you want to be careful about the words you use. The pictures can have them come together in a really beautiful way."

Her work is compelled by a desire to "create worlds and places to go to," she explained.

"When I saw the Auntie Claus windows at Saks Fifth Avenue, I can’t even explain the feeling I got. I cried the first time I saw them because it was something I thought of and was able to communicate and it was a happy thing. People were having a good time, kids were enjoying it, and if you can do that, what’s better?"