Juniper’s Christmas by Eoin Colfer

Source: Netgalley, my many thanks to the publisher!
TL;DR: Such a fun, new and unique take on the Santa story. I really enjoyed this and genuinely hope there is a sequel!

Plot: Juniper is looking for her Mom and ends up tangled up with Santa magic in a world where even Santa has become disillusioned. How does that not sound great?
Characters: I loved these guys. I don’t know what else to say. As far as a middle grade goes this was great.
Setting: The setting was good, not weak, but not the focus here.
Magic: Very unique and different from what I’ve read in Santa stories. That really made it pop for me.

Thoughts:

Juniper’s Christmas is an absolute delight of a story. I will fully admit, this was another one of my ‘Oh wow, that cover is stunning’ moments when I requested this arc and I’m genuinely happy I did. I had a string of middle of the road reads and I picked this up and what a love shot of Christmas spirit this was!

This follows Juniper who is looking for her Mom who seems to have gone missing. The two have been going through the grieving process for her father who passed away and they seem to have just made it into the light as it were and her Mom vanishes. From there Juniper enlists the help of a friend who lives about the park her mother manages and from there she becomes entangled in Santa magic. The most important part to remember is that Santa has been disillusioned and has stopped being Santa for nearly 10 years now.

The idea of a disillusioned Santa was honestly something I’ve not seen in a book before but Eoin Colfer did it well without making it too much. The story built naturally and I loved how the narrator switched from character to character, and the tone throughout. It was genuinely heartwarming at times and I adored the mechanics of the Santa magic in this world. It’s been a long time since a Santa story really enchanted me the way this one did but I loved it. Truly.

I highly recommend this for my Christmas or Middle Grade fans. I would love to see a sequel or even a movie of this. It was so fun and packed full of the spirit of the holidays for those that enjoy it.