The Girl Who Saved Christmas (Boy Called Christmas) Paperback – October 16, 2018

I have fallen in love with all of the wonderful characters that inhabit this amazing follow up to "Boy Called Christmas. " I am a big fan of Matt Haig's writing. I have read a lot of his adult novels and now I have decided to tackle his YA novels. I cannot wait to start the third book in "Boy Called Christmas" series. Loved this! Thank you, Matt Haig! You rock!

Amelia has a lot of belief in Father Christmas. So much, in fact, that her hope was enough to kickstart Christmas when she was 8. But when the next year rolled around and Santa and the reindeer were getting ready to start his yearly trip around the world to deliver presents, the elves and their homes were attacked by trolls. Not only that, but the amount of hope needed for the reindeer to fly and for Santa to stop time was low. Too low.But Father Nicholas isn't about to let the tradition of Christmas go. After rebuilding, he knows that all he needs is the help of Amelia once again. So he sets off for London with the little bit of magic he has to visit Amelia first. Only, when he gets to her home, she's not there. Amelia had been taken to a workhouse and instead of being the child with the most hope is not the child with the least. And Amelia's loss of hope could spell the end of Christmas forever...I loved The Boy Called Christmas, so I was definitely excited to read this sequel. In the tradition of Charles Dickens, who also has a cameo in the story, we have a story about Christmas and the harshness of life in Victorian England blended with some trouble at the North Pole that could make fulfilling Christmas difficult, if not impossible.It's hard to say much about this story without getting into spoiler territory, so I'll just say that if you enjoyed The Boy Called Christmas, then you will probably like this one. In addition, if you listened to the first one, then you will probably also enjoy listening to this one. It does have a different narrator - Carey Mulligan - since the main character, Amelia, is female, but she does just as wonderful a job, And though it's a minor part of the story, I think my favorite part was the scene with Queen Victoria and Albert, and the voices she used for the two of them. I still giggle a bit when I think about it.

Slightly less than one year ago, I read Matt Haig’s “A Boy Called Christmas” and fell in love with the story he had created. This year I’d hoped to finally get a copy of his “The Girl Who Saved Christmas” to read, I’d been so enchanted by his first Christmas novel.”Do you know how magic works?“The kind of magic that gets reindeer to fly in the sky? The kind that helps Father Christmas travel around the world in a single night? The kind that can stop time and make dreams come true?“Hope.“That’s how.“Without hope, there would be no magic.“It isn’t Father Christmas or Blitzen or any of the other reindeer that make magic happen on the night before Christmas.“It’s every child who wants and wishes for it to happen. It no one wished for magic to happen, there would be no magic. And because we know Father Christmas comes every year, we know now that magic—at least some kind of magic—is real.”But, this wasn’t always so, and there were years where no stockings were hung, before hope was in the air, or in the hearts and minds of children.Victorian England features heavily in this story, you’ll see Queen Victoria in these pages, as well as Charles Dickens, a cat named Captain Soot, and a girl named Amelia Wishart, who was the one who saved Christmas, but almost stopped believing in the dream of magic.She was the first child to believe, to hope for that magic of that first Christmas, and it was her hope that made that first Christmas possible.Sadly, she’s fallen on hard times – the kind of hard times that only could happen in earlier times, a time like the Victorian era, the era that Dickens wrote about in her favourite book of his, Oliver Twist.I loved this, from the flying pixies, the truth fairy, elves and the trolls, to the occasional nod to Dickens, the occasional use of Victorian era words rarely used, such as ‘skilamalink.’ I even loved the font that was used for this, and – of course – the marvelous illustrations, courtesy of Chris Mould, which are delightful.I loved that this book is truly meant to be read to children, but has enough charm for adults reading this to remember the wonder of the holiday season as though they are seeing it once again through their own eyes as a child.Hope is such an important thing to have, especially for children, to hold onto. I loved this message most of all, for without hope, there is no faith in anything – religious or otherwise – it is the belief in what could be. It is necessary in order to achieve anything, and everything, in life.

This may be best suited to a 10 - 13 year old, but if you like a quirky read, anyone will enjoy it. If you don't like quirky, this should probably be a "skip it". I bought this in follow up to The Boy Called Christmas. As a fully adult, hopeless optimist, I loved them both. They are now a recommended addition to our Christmas book collection!

Love his writing. Enjoyed this hopeful Christmas Story.

I bought this for my daughter. She needed a wholesome Christmas book for her Christmas in July reading bingo. She absolutely loved this book, read through it really quickly, and asked for my books from this author. She's 12 and really liked this book, her rating is 5 stars.

The perfect sequel to “A Boy Called Christmas”.Perfect for ages 8-12.

My daughter truly enjoyed this book. It was an easy read for a Middle Schooler, yet packed with enough action and fun parts to be an engaging read for the holidays.