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Booksurge, 2007
Reviewed by Sally Roddom
Legend has Santa flying around the whole world in a single night
delivering presents to every good child. Santa has different names in
different countries. In Brazil the children call him Papai Noel and in
Japan he is known as Santa Kurohsu. However, as with many legends there is
an element of truth, and a lot of untruth. The untruth in the case of
Santa is that he is not a single immortal being at all. The truth is he is
one of over seventy different Gift Bringers who each service their own
country and has their own name, passed down from father to son. Each of
the Santa families belongs to the organisation known as the Yule Dynasty.
Each year the Yule Dynasty holds a conference. This year’s conference is
being held in Finland. The Kringles from the USA are flying to the
conference with an important request to put before the meeting. They want
the rules changed so that their daughter, Christine, can be Santa when it
is time to pass the mantle on. Kriss Kringle knows that it will be no easy
task; but there are already some female gift bringers, St Lucy, Babushka
and Tant Arie to name a few, who he hopes will back his request.
However, before his request can be ruled on, disaster strikes when the
small English town of Plinksbury bans Christmas completely. While the Yule
Dynasty Meeting goes into disaster mode to come up with a plan, Kriss
arranges for his daughter to visit the town and solve the problem to prove
that females can make good Santas too. What follows is a wonderful magical
adventure for Christine and her friends Nick (son of the English Santa)
and Little K (son of the Japanese Santa). Can they convert the drab,
unhappy town from hopelessness to celebration? They only have a few days
to do it before the Yule Convention members notice what they are up to and
try to stop them.
CHRISTINE KRINGLE, the first in a proposed series, is for young adults –
and for not so young adults. Christine Kringle is a wonderful character,
not a simpering miss at all. A young teenager, she is well mannered and
polite, but no goodie two shoes either. She devises a plan using a fruit
pie and a Ferrari which will make the car enthusiast in you cry, and the
child in you howl with laughter. I could not put this book down. I was
entranced from the word go and so disappointed when I finally finished.
Not, I hasten to add, because the ending was disappointing -- no way. I
was upset because it had finished. Author Lynn Brittney is already writing
Book Two, and there is enough scope for these adventures to continue in
many different countries of the world.
CHRISTINE KRINGLE is a great adventure story, with non-stop action, laugh
out loud situations and is full of the spirit and magic of Christmas.
Oct 2007
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