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A review by tarshly
The Twenty-four Days Before Christmas by Madeleine L'Engle
1.0
Okay, so I love Madeleine L'Engle. Growing up, A Wrinkle in Time was my favorite book, and I still own it plus the rest of that series. But,I can't see how any kid would actually like The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas. Even though it's such a quick read, and I thought the traditions were interesting, and I freaking love Christmas, I still almost didn't finish it. I mean, come on, it's 71 pages and I almost gave up? Yeah, obviously I really did not enjoy it.
I read it immediately after The Best Christmas Pageant Ever so it's interesting to read two books that are so completely different yet have such similar themes (Christmas pageant and the fear that it will be ruined, not fully understanding religious contexts, coming to terms with what's actually important about Christmas, etc), targeted at the same age group (elementary school), told through similar narrators (elementary school-age girls). But they really are very different, the voice, the flow, everything. I don't know what I was expecting from this book, but I would give a kid a copy of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever over The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas every time.
I read it immediately after The Best Christmas Pageant Ever so it's interesting to read two books that are so completely different yet have such similar themes (Christmas pageant and the fear that it will be ruined, not fully understanding religious contexts, coming to terms with what's actually important about Christmas, etc), targeted at the same age group (elementary school), told through similar narrators (elementary school-age girls). But they really are very different, the voice, the flow, everything. I don't know what I was expecting from this book, but I would give a kid a copy of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever over The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas every time.