The Girl Who Saved Christmas (Christmas #2)

My granddaughter (8 yrs) loved this book! As soon as she received it, she sent me a picture and a thank you!

Slightly less than one year ago, I read Matt Haigs A Boy Called Christmas and fell in love with the story he had created. This year Id hoped to finally get a copy of his The Girl Who Saved Christmas to read, Id been so enchanted by his first Christmas novel.

Do you know how magic works?
The kind of magic that gets reindeer to fly in the sky? The kind that helps Father Christmas travel around the world in a single night? The kind that can stop time and make dreams come true?
Hope.
Thats how.
Without hope, there would be no magic.
It isnt Father Christmas or Blitzen or any of the other reindeer that make magic happen on the night before Christmas.
Its every child who wants and wishes for it to happen. It no one wished for magic to happen, there would be no magic. And because we know Father Christmas comes every year, we know now that magicat least some kind of magicis real.

But, this wasnt always so, and there were years where no stockings were hung, before hope was in the air, or in the hearts and minds of children.

Victorian England features heavily in this story, youll see Queen Victoria in these pages, as well as Charles Dickens, a cat named Captain Soot, and a girl named Amelia Wishart, who was the one who saved Christmas, but almost stopped believing in the dream of magic.

She was the first child to believe, to hope for that magic of that first Christmas, and it was her hope that made that first Christmas possible.

Sadly, shes fallen on hard times the kind of hard times that only could happen in earlier times, a time like the Victorian era, the era that Dickens wrote about in her favourite book of his, Oliver Twist.

I loved this, from the flying pixies, the truth fairy, elves and the trolls, to the occasional nod to Dickens, the occasional use of Victorian era words rarely used, such as skilamalink. I even loved the font that was used for this, and of course the marvelous illustrations, courtesy of Chris Mould, which are delightful.

I loved that this book is truly meant to be read to children, but has enough charm for adults reading this to remember the wonder of the holiday season as though they are seeing it once again through their own eyes as a child.

Hope is such an important thing to have, especially for children, to hold onto. I loved this message most of all, for without hope, there is no faith in anything religious or otherwise it is the belief in what could be. It is necessary in order to achieve anything, and everything, in life.

This was NOT the book I was expecting. I was trying to purchase The Girl Who Saved Christmas by William Thomas Thach. Its a beautiful picture book with a red velvet cover that my daughter loves. Its also available here on Amazon, but you have to scroll down below this version. I started to read this book to my 6 year old niece, but its really for older kids. I hope this helps others from making the same mistake I did.

The book itself is a pleasure to read and very well written; however, the paperback is poorly made. The ink is smudged and blotted all over the pages and the pages are the super thin and easy to rip. The book arrived to me damaged and I can see why as the quality isnt great and I dont anticipate it to make it through many readings in good shape. I will replace with a hardcover when the time comes and hope for better quality as this is a book I can see us reading yearly.

My daughter truly enjoyed this book. It was an easy read for a Middle Schooler, yet packed with enough action and fun parts to be an engaging read for the holidays.

Galaxyaudiobook Member Benefit

- Able to comment

- List watched audiobooks

- List favorite audiobooks

- Bookmark will only available for Galaxyaudiobook member