Scan barcode
jnishi's review
5.0
A wonderful Holiday read. Funny and sweet and heart warming. I read it picturing Emma Thompson narrating it. Excellent writing and narrative voice.
katherinetekla's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
aklev13's review against another edition
3.0
I love Eoin Colfer's writing style. He was always a favourite author of mine growing up and an auto-buy author so i was excited to see he'd realised a Christmas story. Once again i loved his writing style. I do enjoy that he always seems to have some kind of underground criminal element in his books and that he somehow managed to fit that into a Christmas story is just very typical of Colfer.
This gave me Christmas Chronicle vibes to begin with, only in this story Santa doesn't want to be Santa anymore since the loss of his wife and this will be his tenth Christmas since he's absconded. Grief plays a big role in this story because little Juniper has also lost her father and is trying to figure out how to celebrate Christmas without him.
I think the story was a lot of fun. I really like the characters and i liked how grief was a central theme. I'm not sure the grief really had a good strong resolution in the way that it did in the Christmas Chronicles movie. I enjoyed the magical elements, i mean Juniper gets to ride a reindeer - awesome. But aside from this, once again i felt like there was something lacking in terms of the Christmas portion of this book. I think the final climax just wasn't Christmassy enough for me and centred a little too much on Santa finding joy in someone else instead of learning to be Santa even in the absence of his significant other.
This gave me Christmas Chronicle vibes to begin with, only in this story Santa doesn't want to be Santa anymore since the loss of his wife and this will be his tenth Christmas since he's absconded. Grief plays a big role in this story because little Juniper has also lost her father and is trying to figure out how to celebrate Christmas without him.
I think the story was a lot of fun. I really like the characters and i liked how grief was a central theme. I'm not sure the grief really had a good strong resolution in the way that it did in the Christmas Chronicles movie. I enjoyed the magical elements, i mean Juniper gets to ride a reindeer - awesome. But aside from this, once again i felt like there was something lacking in terms of the Christmas portion of this book. I think the final climax just wasn't Christmassy enough for me and centred a little too much on Santa finding joy in someone else instead of learning to be Santa even in the absence of his significant other.
melis076's review
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
michelle_quinn's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
komuszyn's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
emilyelisee's review
4.0
An endearing middle grade Christmas-y novel. A few plot holes on plausibility possibly but it’s a chapter book for kids about magic so I’m not too nitpicky there. It did feel like the door was left open for a sequel at the end.