A wonderful addition to any Christmas-story collection, featuring plenty of charm and a subtle wit.
Canfield (Hardly Even Rich, 2018, etc.) offers an all-ages tale about the meaning of Christmas, taking thematic cues from Charles Dickens’ most famous holiday tale.
An elf named Marmel is the head of the labeling department at the North Pole. As such, it’s his duty to make sure that all humans get sorted onto either the “Naughty” or “Nice” list. But this Christmas, it seems that none of the other elves have listed a single person as “Naughty,” which has never happened before during Marmel’s 107 years in the labeling department. Suspicious, he decides to dig into the individual reports, and he finds one about the Krumwerth family. He deems them to be “certifiably hopeless” and definitely, undoubtedly Naughty. In fact, they’ve been on the Naughty List for two years running, so he must officially inform them that a third time will put them on the Permanent Naughty List. He appears to Amanda Krumwerth to deliver the warning, which sparks her struggle to get her family members back into the Christmas spirit. Meanwhile, Marmel is starting to lose his own Christmas spirit, which, for an elf, is seriously bad news. There’s no end of Christmas stories urging readers to be kind, to share, and to experience the joys of family, like Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. In this one, however, Canfield puts these age-old themes into a thoroughly modern setting without ever making the text feel preachy or saccharine. It’s a story that’s suitable for children, but it doesn’t talk down to them; indeed, some young readers may find its vocabulary to be a pleasant challenge. On the very first page, for instance, the author uses the word “infallible”—a term that isn’t found in many chapter books for young audiences. This book is particularly recommended for readers who enjoy tales of redemption with happy endings.
A wonderful addition to any Christmas-story collection, featuring plenty of charm and a subtle wit.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9995388-9-0
Page Count: 126
Publisher: Well Spoken Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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