Friday, December 11, 2015

Back To Christmas by Dennis Canfield


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