Juniper’s Christmas

Eoin Colfer (text) and Chaaya Prabhat (illustrator), Juniper’s Christmas, HarperCollins Publishers, November 2023, 350 pp., RRP $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780008475543

There is no doubting that Juniper’s Christmas is a rather convoluted story. It involves a missing mother (Juniper’s), a Santa Claus who has abandoned his calling and gone into hiding for almost ten years, a band of elves determined to find him and take him back to the North Pole, a gang of crooks after his magical Santa sack, a homeless lady called Duchess living in the park who is not what she seems, a nasty park keeper who changes his tune and a flying reindeer calf. Along the way, there are explanations of how and why these things have happened.

It all starts with Juniper and her widowed mother living in Cedar Mews near Cedar Park. Her Dad had been one of the park keepers and after he died, her Mum took on the job. Living in the park are quite a few homeless people, including Duchess, and Niko who lives in the nearby forest. When Jennifer Lane goes missing, Duchess moves in to care for Juniper while they search in hospitals, notify the police, put notices online and try anything else they can think of.

Juniper begs Duchess to involve the reclusive Niko but first they have to thwart the head park keeper who is determined to clear out the homeless residents, destroy their pods and get rid of the donated goods brought to the park, especially when the Santa Vigil is held. Niko, who is the retired Santa Claus, has his plans to leave thrown into disarray when he realises he is in love with Duchess and Skara the reindeer calf imprints himself with Juniper. They are now both magical! And the criminals have plans to steal Skara to bait a trap for Niko.

It’s all very complicated and is thrown into even further disarray by the arrival of the elves, the near fatal illness Duchess is suffering from, the park keeper becoming a ‘goodie’, and the Santa Vigil crowd needing to be persuaded that Santa is real. The are four epilogues at the end of the book to round things off!

Black and white drawings appear at the beginning of each chapter and there are several larger illustrations scattered throughout. Young readers may find all the various plots and sub-plots a little tricky and the narrative does not necessarily flow consistently – but it is an original, creative storyline.

Reviewed by Lynne Babbage

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