What aren’t there more retellings of A Christmas Carol?

In Iceland, giving books on Christmas Eve is a custom known as “Jólabókaflóð” or the “Christmas Book Flood.” Our bookish family tradition is re-reading/ watching Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol every year. I even have a dinky copy: is there anything cuter than a mini book?

So why A Christmas Carol? Apart from the obvious seasonal connection, and my obsession with the Victorian tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas (more on that to follow) a few years ago, my son was lucky enough to play Tiny Tim at the Charles Dickens Museum in London. They were doing “living theatre” performances, so as visitors walked around the house they watched different scenes. Magical!

Given the popularity of a “twisted” fairy tale, I’m surprised there aren’t more creative re-tellings of this classic – it has so much scope, but I’m only aware of two. Please let me know of others to add to the list: there must be more!

  • Bah Humbug by Michael Rosen. “In a school theatrical production of “A Christmas Carol”, the boy who plays Scrooge is extra nervous because his very busy father is in the audience. However, it’s likely his father won’t stay for the duration, due to business. As always. Will the classic story’s message of Christmas cheer and family love reach his father’s distracted heart?”
  • The Miracle on Ebeneezer Street by Catherine Doyle. “When George stumbles across Marley’s Curiosity Shop at the Christmas fair he finds a mysterious snow globe. The scene it contains is just the first in a series of impossibilities . . . George and his Scrooge of a dad are soon swept on a hilarious adventure to Christmases past, present and future. With help from an enthusiastic elf, a rather grumpy purple reindeer and a very mischievous Nan, can George find a way to bring the joy of Christmas home once again?”

So when I saw the book tour for A Christmas Carol with Grandfather Time, I was excited to see what the author had done with it, and it’s great to have something else to add to my very short list above, especially since it is a picture book format.

The messages about sharing and caring in Scenes 1 and 2 are spot on. Personally, I have a slight issue with the characterisation used in Scene 3: Christmas future. As parents, of course we want our kids to be connecting “in real life”, but I believe the image of a computer nerd/ gamer alone and in “terrible gloom” is an outdated cliché. When my son is gaming, he is talking non-stop to friends, a bit like we used to get home from school and immediately phone our friends (much to my parents annoyance if I didn’t wait for the cheaper calls after 6pm). Anyway, given the gaming industry currently makes more than three times as much money as the music industry and almost four times as much as the movie industry, and is still growing, it’s actually likely that young readers of this book, their friends, and/ or family could be involved in the industry, so why put a downer on it? Anyway, conscious I’m probably in the minority on this point.

One other thing, the book is dotted with the work “Boing”. I think it’s the grandfather clock chiming, but I would have described that as a “tock” or “dong” or “bong” perhaps. Boing sounds bouncy to me, which doesn’t make sense. Plus there is a dash in the middle of the word, so it is written “Bo-ing” and EVERY time I saw it, I read it as “Boring”. Ooops! Is that just me?

The blurb

“A modern lyrical re-telling of the Charles Dickens classic for children of all ages. Young Ebenezer hates sharing and is not very caring. Can a magical clock and a ghost puppy help him mend his ways?”

About the author

Living on ‘England’s Green & Pleasant Land’, among the gentle rolling hills of the Herefordshire Countryside, Rose’s house is wall to wall books. She’s a Read-a-holic, whose hobby is to write stories for the young and young at heart.

Working as a school librarian, and sharing her love of books with children, was the best job she ever had. However, life moves on and another chapter was only a page turn away. Working in a very different library now, she is a key worker for the NHS helping to run the Medical Equipment Library in Wye Valley NHS Trust.

After winning FIRST PRIZE in a short story competition with ‘The Magic of Grandfather Christmas’ she is inspired to transform the tale into a collection of stories for all ages. ‘Young Ebenezer’ is inspired by the Dickens classic ‘A Christmas Carol’ and brought into modern times with a strong theme of sharing and caring. Rose has a little sidekick called Miss Ruby Heart, a ruby King Charles spaniel from the Grandfather Time Series. The puppy is the Ghost of Christmas Past and features on the ‘Young Ebenezer’ covers.

Maximising the magic of an author visit

I’ve seen a flurry of posts on various FB groups that I’m in from schools looking for authors to visit for World Book Day (WBD). As an author, it’s our busiest day (or in practice week) of the year. But, like a puppy is not just for Christmas, an author is not just for WBD. We LOVE visiting at any time of the year!

Whilst every school has its own processes for booking and preparing for an author visit, I thought it might be interesting to share a few tips from an author’s perspective on what teachers could do to help the event go smoothly after it has been booked.

Before the Visit

Unless you’ve booked a “big” name (lucky you with the correspondingly big budget!), many of the pupils will likely be unfamiliar with the author. If timetabling permits, some introduction to the the author/ their books can help build excitement. This could take the form of posters around the school, book readings, themed art projects, and classroom discussions. I’ve had students study my website to prepare questions in advance, leading in one case to a discussion on why I hate custard!

Between sessions

We know teachers are frantically busy, but as an author it can be quite daunting to be left to fend for yourself between sessions – it’s a bit like your first day at school: you are completely lost. I’ve had a panic attack about making a cup of coffee in the staff room! Honestly, it’s an absolute minefield – is the coffee communal? Have I picked someone’s special mug? Which milk am I supposed to use?

Outside the staffroom, a classroom assistant or student ambassador to guide the author from classroom to classroom if they are doing a series of events is really helpful. Obviously, check if the author has the necessary Enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) approval (in the UK) or equivalent before appointing students to the role.

In your classroom

Please do let the author know if there are any issues within your class that they should be mindful of e.g. pupils where English is a second language, recent family trauma, etc. and be on stand-by to help with any disruptive pupils.

Personally, I like to wrap up any Q&A session with asking a teacher if there is anybody who has had their hand up for a really long time that I’ve missed. Without knowing the pupils, and despite my best efforts, it is easy to miss the quieter child with a half raised hand in a sea of people jumping up and down.

After the Visit

If you do any follow up activities, please do share them with the author! I always try to give positive feedback to pupils who send me stories to read after an event.

Encouraging students to write thank-you notes is not only an exercise in good manners but also a valuable writing exercise, allowing them to reflect on what they learned from the visit. Plus, for the author, receiving personalised messages of appreciation is totally heartwarming!

What would you add to this? Please let me know!

The monster, the puppy, and the mix-up

I do love a Robin Bennett book and have previously reviewed several of his books on here as well as joining him for a chat where he shared his five (and a half) writing tips. So I was always going to say “yes” to reviewing his latest book in the Monster Max series, This Time it’s Sirius.

This has all the essential ingredients: a logo (“Protect and do good stuff”), secret clubhouses, monsters, werewolves, and the cutest puppy. I’m a sucker for a cute puppy with a hidden backstory – check out my exclusive interview with Claire Fayers about her book Stormhound if you don’t believe me.

Anyway, back to Sirius. As a grown-up, the plot was entirely predictable, but that didn’t make it any less enjoyable. This is a perfect fun read for the last week of the school holidays, and doubly perfect given the full moon on the 30th August is both a supermoon and an extremely rare blue moon (hence the phrase “once in a blue moon”). I think we should get practising our werewolf howls, although I’m gutted to discover the moon won’t actually turn blue.

Blurb

Max can turn into a huge monster just by BURPING, and back again when he SNEEZES. Now Max and his best friend Peregrine realise that a dangerous pack of werewolves from Max’s home country of Krit are closing in on him and his family. But Max hasn’t told anyone about Sirius the tiny werewolf cub he found, smuggled home, and decided to keep…

About the author

When Robin grew up he thought he wanted to be a cavalry officer until everyone else realised that putting him in charge of a tank was a very bad idea. He then became an assistant gravedigger in London. After that he had a career frantically starting businesses (everything from dog-sitting to cigars, tuition to translation)… until finally settling down to write improbable stories to keep his children from killing each other on long car journeys.

What happens when Oliver Twist meets Harry Potter?

I’ve always loved the boarding school scenario from my first adventures at Mallory Towers to Hogwarts so I was excited to visit Crookhaven – a secret school for crooks. Given the plethora of boarding school books out there, I know it’s not easy to create a unique world and the tropes can be overdone, but this series totally nails it.

  • Secret boarding school ✔️
  • Quirky lessons ✔️
  • Fun challenges ✔️
  • Loveable rogues ✔️
  • Robin Hood ethics ✔️

This series had me reading under the covers in the middle of the night. I haven’t done that since I was ten! I literally couldn’t put it down. When is book 3 coming out? I need it now!

It does lean on some scenes from Hogwarts – e.g. there is a river crossing with the first years (“crooklings”) to get to the school and a sorting ceremony into houses – but it is really well done. Good messages on teamwork and kindness, as well as the importance of practising skills (in fact it was nice to see this applied to lessons as I always tell students that writing is a skill and you can get better at it if you practice, just like you can get better at football if you practice).

My only complaint about the books is that there are a few references to playing/ walking on railway lines and this is NOT OK. I really don’t see why this is included – it’s not critical to the plot, and certainly not something we should in any way encourage.

Blurb: Crookhaven series

Book 1: The school for thieves

The first book in the ‘criminally good’ Crookhaven series, the secret school where students are taught to do wrong, so that one day, they can put the world to rights.

“So this is really a school for criminals.” It was meant as a question, though it came out more as an accusation.

“We are so much more than that,” Caspian said, sitting in a plush leather chair and gesturing for Gabriel to sit in a similar one across the table. “We are a home for the forgotten, a sanctuary for the lost and … yes, a training ground for the greatest crooks of the future.”

13-year-old Gabriel is a brilliant pickpocket, a skill which he uses to keep his often empty belly not quite so empty. And then one day, he’s caught.

But instead of being arrested, he is invited by the mysterious Caspian Crook to attend Crookhaven – a school for thieves. At Crookhaven, students are trained in lock-picking, forgery and ‘crim-nastics’, all with the intention of doing good out in the world, by conning the bad and giving back to the innocent.

But … can you ever really trust a thief?

With a school wide competition to be crowned Top Crook and many mysteries to uncover, Gabriel’s first year at Crookhaven will be one to remember… 

Book 2: The forgotten maze

It’s Gabriel’s second year at Crookhaven School for Thieves. And with a tricky Break-In challenge to the teacher’s section of the library to attempt, plus a new class called Reclamation, his Miscreant year is already off to a busy start. 

Then Gabriel and his friends learn about Maravel’s Maze. Hidden deep beneath the lake, forgotten about by the school, it’s a labyrinth of obstacles. Each tests a crook-related skill – and all are nearly impossible. 

But the impossible has never stopped Gabriel’s crew before, especially not when there’s something at the heart of the maze that they all desperately want…

#crookhavenschoolforthieves #netgalley

Bus book stop time (again!)

I remember play buses from my childhood so I’ve always had a soft spot for the play bus book series (Jay-Jay and his friends) by Sue Wickstead and have featured several of them over the years.

Sue is in my local writing group and is a primary school teacher as well as an author. Her latest book, Daisy Daydream Bus Rhymes and Jokes, is slightly different as although it refers to the real Daisy Daydream bus JJK 261, it is a collection (obviously, given the title) of bus themed rhymes and jokes rather than a story. I was pleased to see a page on the history still included though.

Sue’s writing style is usually more text dense than a traditional picture book, making them read aloud stories rather than independent reads, but given this is in short snippets so a young bus fan can dip into it themselves. As for the jokes – well, I particularly loved this one

What is red, runs on wheels, and eats grass?
A bus – I lied about the grass!

Blurb

Some well known nursery rhymes, rewritten, with a bus twist. Come and sing along and share a bus joke too. A special collection for Daisy Daydream

Author Bio

Sue Wickstead lives in West Sussex, UK and writes children’s picture story books. 

Her stories relate to both her experiences as a teacher as well as her play-work adventures with a bus.

The Playbus was a real double-decker bus full of toys, arts and crafts, as well as a lot of fun to play on. Sue wrote a photographic social history book about the project which led to her story telling and her writing. All of Sue’s books do have a bus included in them somewhere. Daisy Daydream was the bus that Sue painted and the start of her Playbus and writing journey. 

When not writing Sue builds models with Lego (especially for her grandson), she loves spending quality time with her young grandson and enjoys creating models to share with him on his visits. 

Her grandson features in the book ‘Barty Barton; the bear that was loved too much’ which was published in 2020. He also helps his Nanny Sue to sing along with a few of the rhymes sue has written.

Many of Sue’s books have been entered and shortlisted in ‘The Wishing Shelf Book Awards’, the book ‘A Spooky Tale’ was a silver medal winner in 2019. The story was written with her class in school.