Ei ehkä edeltäjänsä veroinen, mutta edelleen hauska kirja. Suosittelen. ( )

The story of Amelia Wishart, the first child ever to receive a gift from Father Christmas. Her hope made that first visit possible, because with hope comes magic, as we learning in Haig's first book, A Boy Called Christmas. 10-year Amelia's mother is very ill, and Amelia is trying to fill her shoes as a chimney sweep, along with her black cat, Captain Soot. She writes Father Christmas for help, who cannot help as Christmas is sabotaged by the trolls. Then tragedy strikes, and Amelia is sent to a workhouse (by the evil Mr. Creeper), where she loses all hope, threatening the subsequent Christmas as Father Christmas does not have enough magic to stop time to deliver presents. He cleverly figures out Amelia needs to be rescued as do some of his elf helpers.

P.S. Nice illustrations, but they really need color. ( )

Audiobook. These little Christmas fables are so enjoyable. ( )

It's the time of year that every adult looks forward to: when we can awaken our inner child and read a Matt Haig Christmas book. I'm running a little behind with my Matt Haig Christmas series as The Girl Who Saved Christmas was released in 2016, following hot on the heels of the bestselling A Boy Called Christmas from 2015. I treated myself to signed copies of both beautiful sparkly books.

So we return to the magical village of Elfhelm where Christmas is under threat, not just by the trolls who are planning an attack on the village but by the loss of hope. Without hope, Father Christmas can't create his magic to deliver his presents to children all over the world and without magic, reindeer can't fly.

Amelia is a chimney sweep in Victorian London who had enough hope the prior year for Father Christmas to fly all over the world. This year though, Amelia finds herself in the workhouse and parted from her dear feline friend, Captain Soot. Any hope Amelia once had has been extinguished like a candle flame by creepy Mr Creeper who owns the workhouse. Father Christmas must find Amelia to bring hope back but will he find her in time to deliver all his presents or will Christmas be cancelled again?

I loved A Boy Called Christmas but I absolutely adored The Girl Who Saved Christmas. As magical as the story is, it gives a glimpse into the poverty of Victorian Britain so you remember that you're not reading a fairytale - well, Father Christmas is real, so it's definitely not a fairy story. I also have to say that the illustrations by Chris Mould are EXCEPTIONAL: I find his illustrations of the characters remind me of a Tim Burton film but his drawings of buildings are jawdroppingly magnificent.

I'm adding The Girl Who Saved Christmas to my must-read-every-Christmas list, along with A Boy Called Christmas. Young or old, Matt Haig keeps the magic alive for those of us who believe in Father Christmas (and why wouldn't you?) and each and every one us can do our bit each year by wishing for the magic to happen. Wishes really do come true... ( )

This was the only one I have read out of this series, and maybe that was a mistake as maybe the characters would have been familiar. I read this to my 9yo son, and we both found the opening very confusing.

There were too many characters presented with all the different elves, pixies, and trolls, which made it difficult to remember who was who. There was not enough time to build any solid characters in our minds as it built up to an event with the trolls, and then these characters were left hanging while another story took over.

The interjection of the story with Amelia Wishhart in the early part of the story sort of interrupted the flow, but it was intriguing and we waited for them to join together, but it was a long wait. It made this initial story less enjoyable, because it was unclear why it had happened and not believable how Father Christmas had stopped it and then ignored until the end.

We really enjoyed the Amelia Wishhart storyline: the characters were developed and well presented, and we loved the play on Charles Dicken's - not only as he was brought in as a character - but because his novel, Oliver Twist, was reflected in the storyline.

The two stories were then brought together at the end and sort of sown together. I felt they could have been written as two separate books really.

Having really enjoyed How to Become A Cat, I felt a little let down by this book, which felt as disjointed as this review. ( )