The twelve topsy-turvy, very messy days of Christmas

James Patterson, 1947-

Book - 2022

During the holiday season, a family of three, missing someone very dear to them, find their house filling up with unexpected guests, making Christmas memories to last a lifetime.

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Subjects
Genres
Christmas fiction
Domestic fiction
Novels
Published
New York : Little, Brown and Company 2022.
Language
English
Main Author
James Patterson, 1947- (author)
Other Authors
Tad Safran (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
276 pages ; 22 cm
ISBN
9780316405904
Contents unavailable.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Five years after their mother dies on Christmas Day, two children have a magical Christmas experience. Will and Ella Sullivan, ages 14 and 12 respectively, have had a tough five years. With their mother's death, their father, Henry, has retreated into himself. He drinks too much, refuses to buy anything approaching a luxury (and in his mind, that would include honey and jam), and does the bare minimum at Columbia University, where he's a professor. With Christmas a forbidden topic, let alone a day a celebrate, Will and Ella decide to set up a dating profile for their father in an attempt to find happiness for him--and Christmas presents for themselves. The result is a crazy, magical, outlandish story that still works: A Ms. Truelove starts messaging "Henry," and the kids message back, pretending to be their father. Henry discovers the scheme almost immediately and lets Ms. Truelove know she's been messaging children. The next day, however, a crate arrives on the doorstep of their Harlem town house with the words "Truelove Nurseries" stenciled on the outside. Inside: A partridge in a pear tree. More gifts follow: Two turtle doves, followed by three French hens--and so on, through the end of the song for which the book is named. With outlandish yet joyful elements reminiscent of books such as Mr. Popper's Penguins (1938), this joint effort by authors Patterson and Safran is a magical throwback to classic children's fiction. Scary elements are touched on--a mother's death, a father's alcoholism, school bullies, shoplifting, and more--but the story itself is uplifting, with friendships rekindled, family love and happiness rediscovered, and neighborliness and kindness shared. A delightful Christmas story to be shared by the whole family. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.