An endearing festive story about the joy of spreading cheer at Christmas.

Nine-year-old Holly is obssessed with Christmas, but when Holly moves to a new school, she comes face-to-face with the reality that not everyone might like Christmas as much as she does, in this charming middle grade about friendship, community and the spirit of the season.

I adored Holly and her Christmas-obsessed life. She's a bit like Buddy the Elf: extremely naive about the real world, but in an endearing way – you can't help but root for her despite the fact that you know not everyone will appreciate her relentless Christmas cheer. If you manage to suspend your disbelief for a moment – like how her parents Snow and Nick live in this equally ignorant bubble where their intense Christmas obsession isn't questioned by every other person they know – you are treated to a charming story of a girl learning to fit in without compromising who she is and what she loves. She has a quirk of mashing words together to make Christmas puns, like 'snowiches' for snow and sandwiches, which was incredibly fun, especially in the audiobook format.

I also loved Holly's new friend Archer. Her total opposite, he is cynical, aloof, and a social outcast, yet his and Holly's friendship is really sweet, and he makes an effort despite his apprehension to show interest in Christmas for her. He also makes some important points on the many ways that the holidays are difficult for some people, which I think is a great message for children.

For the most part I really enjoyed Shakira Newton's narration. She gives each character a distinctive voice that really helped differentiate the characters. The only issue I would take is that sometimes her tone would flick upwards before a full stop, making a lot of the sentences sound like questions. I did eventually get used to it but it was quite grating to begin with.

WILL I READ ON? I doubt I will go out of my way to pick up the rest of the books, but I would be happy to listen to the next two on audio, for sure.

3.5 stars

THE CHRISTMAS CARROLLS is a humorous novel about a Christmas-obsessed family moving into a small town where people don't want to celebrate Christmas everyday.

Holly is start school for the first time and trying to navigate that strange experience. She's been home-schooled before and now has to get used to being around lots of other kids. It's a story about trying to fit in and learning that being your self is the best way to make true friends, even if it's a lot harder to do.

The book also discusses the care system. While the inadequacies of the system are touched up (the uncertainty of foster kids over where they'll be in the future), I really appreciated that the book wasn't all doom and gloom and "it's awful". Instead, it celebrates the amazing people in the system trying their hardest to care for kids.

It was somewhat an odd reading experience to read a book and, in some ways, be rooting against a core facet of the main protagonist. I really wanted the Carrolls to learnt that Christmas is not the be all and end all, that they could find joy and cheer in the rest of the year. I honestly did find it a bit sinister at times how Christmas-obsessed the family was rather than seeing it as purely a fun narrative idea.

I listened to the audiobook, and Shakira Newton does a fab job. There are lots of accents and even a donkey-reindeer to bring to life too! (Also MG audiobooks are much shorter than YA or adult ones, which is really nice as you can fit it in a few days, and so it's easier not to forget what happened because you didn't start it weeks ago!)