THE NAUGHTY LIST

Miscreants on Santa Claus’ naughty list are recruited to help save him in this debut children’s novel.

Hardly anyone notices when Santa doesn’t show up for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, but Hermey Kringle does. He’d promised to introduce his grandson, Tiberius Kringle, to Santa (a personal friend), but the boy—like most of the planet—cares only about playing Eastern Industries’ hot new video game. At the North Pole, Hermey and Tiberius learn that Santa has been kidnapped by Eastern Industries in order to take over Christmas. Mrs. Claus believes that Tiberius, who’s topped the Naughty List for three years running, could use his nefarious talents for good to help save Santa and Christmas. Inspired, Tiberius agrees. He helps recruit a crack team from the Naughty List, with all of the members having special talents for their rescue mission—Operation Naughty Redemption—to infiltrate the Arctic stronghold where Santa is held captive. It will take all of their skills, plus those of children, animals, animated snowmen, and an inspired global effort to pull off. In his book, Conway turns his let’s-save-Christmas story into an exciting action tale, with all the pleasures of assembling a team, seeing a plan come together, and embarking on an all-out mission during which the kids model persistence, resourcefulness, and intelligence. But the work twists itself into logical knots with the premise that Christmas is a universal holiday, asserting that “Santa accepts all religions” because Christmas was influenced by non-Christian historical traditions and winter solstice festivals. Yet the story rests entirely on the Santa–North Pole–reindeer version.

An original and action-packed holiday tale with some questionable elements.