Beloved author of the Artemis Fowl Series, Eoin Colfer has delivered a middle grade Christmas novel just in time for this holiday season. Stylistically, the narrator’s voice is third person omniscient, and this lends itself to a natural read-aloud for elementary school ages. The 355-page book is also sprinkled with a few black and white illustrations (less than a dozen). The narrative becomes stronger as the book progresses and after about the halfway mark the reader will be seeing more of the Colfer style and humor they are familiar with. Admittedly, this reader set the bar pretty high because of Colfer’s prior brilliant work. The story didn’t quite clear that bar, but it was still a fun, positive, and enjoyable read that can be whole-heartedly recommended for those seeking the Christmas spirit.

Colfer infuses the story with ethnically diverse characters and modern social topics such as homelessness. It was appreciated that at the back of the book is a postcard that readers can return to MacMillian publishing who will in turn donate to charities supporting unhoused families–one book for each of the first 10,000 postcards received before Christmas Day 2023. This made the book’s themes ring a lot more authentic, and this reader loved the “take action now” prompt.

If your family enjoys exploring a new book at Christmas, then it is recommended that you give Juniper’s Christmas a try and maybe even use it to launch a family conversation on how to help those unhoused families in your community.

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language: None

Violence/Gore: Character chased by an animal; a character sees blood and deduces that an animal has hurt itself; adult character thinks about doing harm to a child; animal is captured and approached threateningly by human who intend to tame it using violence (no violence actually happens); individual is locked up against their will; implied threats; character is severely injured when hit by a vehicle; character is held against their will; adult character throws object at child with intent to injury severely but ends up just knocking them over and knocking wind out of them; character punches another in the face and knocks them unconscious; characters approach a child threateningly; references to previous deaths of family members (spouse, parent); verbal threats.

Sex/Nudity: Male and female characters hold hands, verbally express love for each other.

Mature Subject Matter:

Death (reported) of a family member (spouse, parent), crime, homelessness/poverty, missing persons (family member), kidnapping, illness.

Alcohol/Drug Use:

None