Back To Christmas by Dennis Canfield
Synopsis from Goodreads:
Twelve-year old Amanda
Krumwerth has just two days to save her dysfunctional family from going onto
Santa's Permanent Naughty List. Marmel the elf, head of Santa's Department for
Labeling People Naughty or Nice, would like nothing better than to see her
fail; he's told Amanda there is no hope for her family, and no evidence of love
in her family either. Can she prove him wrong? Find out in this story about an
unhappy elf, an unpleasant family, and the magic of Christmas.
My Review:
This book was so cute! A great Christmas story, that I can
see being made into a movie.
Marmel, head labeling elf he is in charge of labeling the
naughty and nice and he is in a tizzy because Santa changed the rules and now
no one is on the naughty list but Marmel has found a whole family (The
Krumwerth’s) that he thinks should be on the permanent naughty list, no more
chances they are just bad, bad, bad, at least according to Marmel. However
Santa wants to give them a chance to redeem themselves, much to Marmel’s
chagrin. According to the rules Marmel must inform the family they are in
danger of being on the naughty list forever, so he heads to the house and
informs teenaged Amanda of the family’s fate. We also get to see Santa’s
brother RC (Reverse Claus) who lives on the South Pole and wears green and has
green and white candy canes, which I will never look at without thinking of RC
again!
I enjoyed the Krumwerth family too they used to have fun on
Christmas but have somehow forgotten their Christmas spirit, but they aren’t
the only ones Marmel seems to be having a problem with this himself and for and
Elf that is a very bad thing to happen.
The story is told by Marmel & Amanda in alternating
chapters as you see how they try to get their Christmas Spirit back. I enjoyed
the family stuff and know what it is like when Christmas becomes more of a
chore than the fun and family it is supposed to be. I also enjoyed the scenes
in the South Pole and hope maybe RC will get his own book one of these days!
I truly enjoyed this book and can so see it as movie **Hello
Hollywood… Do You Hear Me?**
I highly recommend this fun book!
4 ½ Stars
