Stealing Saint Nick: A Legendary Corpse, A Notorious Theft, and the Stories that Shape the World by M.T. Anderson is young adult non-fiction that investigates reports about the original Saint Nick, happenings around him, and how over time he became one of the prominent symbols of Christmas. The author does a deep dive into historical research, even commissioning a couple of translations of accounts into English. Twenty-five percent of the page count is dedicated to the author’s note, bibliography, and the notes. The author appears to be most thorough in investigating the roots of this phenomenon, the actual Saint Nick, who the world now knows as Santa Claus. The book’s approach is somehow scholarly, narrative, conversational, and philosophical all at once. At times, the author breaks the fourth wall by informally talking about what history is and encouraging the reader to contemplate how an obscure person can become a part of history and how the reader should take this into account for their own life.
Readers who enjoy history, non-fiction, or are looking for a different flavor of Christmas read this year will find this book interesting.
Review of a Digital Advance Copy Provided by the Publisher
Content Analysis:
Note: End notes and footnotes not reviewed or tallied for content.
Profanity/Language: None
Violence/Gore: Report of verbal threat of death; armed theft; stories about Saint Nicholas about protecting children from killers/butchers who served children for dinner; report of Christians publicly executed in extremely violent manner; report of death of parents; story that a father is going to sell daughters into slavery; reference to gladiatorial combat between enslaved men and wild beasts; references to ritual slaughter of animals to Apollo; report of Roman emperor being skinned by king of Persia; brief accounts of Roman torture of Christians, bodily mutilation, and death, some descriptions; analysis of skeletal remains review evidence of broken nose and skull fractures from head blows; report of attempts to assassinate political figures; report of political figure calling for dark arts, sacrifice of lions and human infants to gods; short story about murder of three boys by wife and husband, mention of blood and some gruesome description; attempted destruction by explosion; report a leader killed son and wife; verbal threat of harm; stories about a punisher wielding a whip; several separate and various references to historical battles, wars, and conflicts over a thousand plus years; account of being shot by arrows; extended scene in which a tomb is ransacked/looted for human skeleton/remains, destruction of property, threat of harm to religious guardians; mob beats religious guardian; account of a person having a disturbing dream, mention of blood; brief account of riot/conflict resulting in deaths; a brief quoting of accounts of some of the atrocities of the Crusades, descriptive; vandalism and destruction of a church; report of torture of religious guardian during a theft to get information.
Sex/Nudity: Reference to Artemis statue with dozens of breasts.
Mature Subject Matter:
Desecration of burial site, armed theft, Crusades, persecution of early Christians, death, a variety of religions, displacement of Native Americans (mention), torture, wars,
Alcohol/Drug Use:
None
