For some inexplicable reason I have been on the quest lately for a good Christmas read. This is apparently more challenging than it first appears. This might be because many Christmas books are origin stories for Santa Claus–not that there is anything wrong with that, but it can lead to some similarities across books. Recently, I stumbled upon A Boy Called Christmas, which was first published in 2016 and eventually made into a Netflix film in 2021. The novel was so successful that it has birthed three other related books. (Adult readers might also recognize Matt Haig, the author of The Midnight Library.)
A Boy Called Christmas starts with the concept of “What was Santa Claus like as a child?”; so, it is an origin story after a fashion. Where this novel is particularly charming is in the narrative voice. It is perfect for reading aloud and there is a dash of dry humor along the way. Additionally, there was a satisfying number of illustrations by Chris Mould. A great read-aloud is always enhanced by a few pictures for the young listeners.
Content Analysis:
Profanity/Language: None
Violence/Gore: Report of the death of a parent; arrow shot at an animal; report of an animal found injured with an arrow and characters help it; animal has an arrow in its foot; hunters say they shoot animals and have meat every night; character’s feet are blistered and injured from walking and exposure to elements; character and animal suffer exposure to the brink of death; report of a kidnapping; character imprisoned; report that a fantasy character made another fantasy character’s head explode; fantasy character threatens to kill/eat someone; struggle where fantasy character attempts to eat someone and after a turn of events, its head explodes (a few adjectives for description); character is pursued and shot at with arrows, etc. upon a couple of occassions; character is injured by arrow and sacrifices self (death implied); verbal threats of harm and death.
Sex/Nudity: None
Mature Subject Matter:
Death of a parent, poverty, hunger, prejudice against other races (e.g. elves v humans), mistreatment/neglect of a child by an adult, kidnapping.
Alcohol/Drug Use:
Adults drink cloudberry wine.
