A Boy Called Christmas, Matt Haig

Pages: 266

Publisher: Canongate

Release Date: 12^th November 2015

Edition: UK hardback, review copy

Other Titles by this Author: Shadow Forest, The Runaway Troll, How to Be a Cat, The Radleys, The Humans, Echo Boy, Reasons to Stay Alive

You are about to read the true story of Father Christmas.

It is a story that proves nothing is impossible.

If you are one of those people who believe that some things are impossible, you should put this book down right away. It is most certainly not for you. Because this book is full of impossible things.

Are you still reading?

Good.

Then let us begin…

A Boy Called Christmas is a tale of adventure, snow, kidnapping, elves, more snow, and an eleven-year-old boy called Nikolas, who isn’t afraid to believe in magic.

A Boy Called Christmas is a great book to read in the run up to Christmas whether you’re 8 or 108; it's full of magic, snow and Important Lessons.

I don’t know if I read this a little too early, but it didn’t quite put me in the magical, Christmassy spirit I was expecting. I actually felt like there were quite a few glaring morality lessons throughout Nikolas’s story that put me off a little and distracted me from the story itself. I'm all for learning and teaching in books, but for me, it works best when it's subtle and it didn’t feel all that subtle in A Boy Called Christmas.

I did love Elfhelm, though. After the betrayal of a human, joy and happiness has been banned, along with dancing and outsiders. It did make me chuckle. I loved the community among the elves and their intrinsic joy at everything. The bits of the novel based in Elfhelm were by far my favourite in the novel and I enjoyed watching Nikolas grow, change and find happiness in Elfhelm. This history of Father Christmas becoming who he is answers all those questions that try and knock your confidence in his existence when you’re little so hopefully it’ll keep the belief going for a little while longer…

Thanks to Canongate for the review copy.

Sophie