Brokenhearted Santa vs. gangsters in wild, funny fantasy
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 9+?
Any Positive Content?
Violence & Scariness
some
There's a lot of death and bereavement in the back story, as Juniper's lost her dad, Niko's lost his wife, and neither of them is coping that well. And then Juniper's mom disappears. Corporate greed and bureaucratic power-tripping threaten the park and those who make it their home. As the plot unfolds, kid, reindeer, and adult characters find themselves locked in scary prisons by gangsters. A mom punches her kid's kidnapper hard enough to knock the kidnapper out. Gangsters have assorted weapons.
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Strong messages of love, kindness, courage, empathy, family, friendship. The motto "Don't wait for CHANGE, be the CHANGE" crops up often, including as a character's tattoo. Another strong theme: "Christmas makes people nicer to one another."
Positive Role Models
a lot
Two long-dead characters -- Niko's wife Sarika and Juniper's dad Briar -- were a strong, loving presence in the lives of their families while they lived, and they remain guiding lights to those who loved them. Eleven-year-old Juniper is compassionate and kind-hearted, as her parents teach by example; she struggles with grief in the wake of her dad's death and the loss of Christmas, but helps others -- friends and strangers alike -- at every opportunity. Both she and her reindeer pal Skära are young and impulsive and sometimes do the wrong thing because they don't think it through, but work hard to make things right. Her mom, Jennifer, disappears early in the story, but she and Juniper share a strong bond that serves them both well. They befriend Duchess, a homeless woman in the park, who may have more going on than meets the eye. Likewise Niko, a mysterious bearded guy living in the homeless encampment, helping out the residents, who may actually be Santa Claus. A city bureaucrat and a villainous Irish gangster mom have dark plans to get rid of Christmas and/or hijack it for their own purposes.
Diverse Representations
some
Juniper's late dad was originally from Ghana, coming to England as a refugee when he was a kid. Niko's life is derailed by the death of his Indian wife. Much of the story has to do with the lives, circumstances, and surprising qualities of the various people "living rough," i.e. homeless, in the park, and those who try to help them. A number of characters are cartoonishly stereotypically Irish who often use dialect, and the author, who is also Irish, makes stereotypical generalizations about Irish people, such as that they all like horses.
Christmas magic and fantasy are central to the story, and there's a lot of imaginative faux-scientific explanation for things like how reindeer fly and how Santa manages to get around the world in a single day. Also assorted, sometimes real Scandinavian words. But a lot carries over into our world. Eleven-year-old Juniper is seen in action using real-life skills, like going online to research a fragment of an image and coming away with a wealth of information. The (never credited) '60s Donovan song "Jennifer Juniper" is important to Juniper and her mom Jennifer, and its opening line repeats many times. Author Colfer has a love of and a way with words, so expect a lot of sentences like "magic is a powerful sanitizer right down to the molecular level." Lots of vocabulary-boosting and fine-sounding words like "transparent," "initially," "conductors," "electrolytes," and "composites."
Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Juniper's Christmas is a fantasy-based Christmas tale by bestselling Irish author Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl, The Dog Who Lost His Bark), featuring a biracial 11-year-old girl in London and a world where Christmas has been on hold for a decade. Santa (which turns out to be a job handed down from generation to generation) was so undone by his wife's death -- not to mention ungrateful kids who tossed their presents without even playing with them -- that he quit and disappeared. Young Juniper's beloved father, a refugee from Ghana, died a few years ago, and now her mom has disappeared, leaving her in the care of an eccentric homeless lady and launching a series of adventures. Cartoonish villains speaking Irish dialect and calling each other "idiot" a lot menace, kidnap, and imprison kids, adults, and reindeer in their evil plot to hijack Christmas. Other villains see the error of their ways and join Team Santa. Love and kindness -- sometimes in the form of a furious mom punching a gangster in the nose -- rule the day.
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What's the Story?
Eleven-year-old JUNIPER'S CHRISTMAS looks pretty bleak. First of all, she and her mom, caretakers of a London park, are still reeling from her dad's death a few years back. But it's not just them -- almost a decade ago, Santa, crushed by his beloved wife's death, walked off the job, and there's been no Christmas ever since, despite hopeful Christmas vigils by people who want Christmas back in their lives. Now his elves are trying to find him before Christmas goes away forever. A mean, nasty band of Irish gangsters plots to hijack Christmas for their own evil ends. And Juniper's mom disappears, leaving her in the care of their eccentric friend Duchess, a homeless lady who lives in a London park. Juniper and Duchess are determined to get her back. Juniper's also determined to enlist Duchess' large, bearded friend Niko, who helps the homeless, doesn't say much, and may or may not be Santa.
Is It Any Good?
Our review:
Parents say:Not yet rated
Kids say:Not yet rated
Eoin Colfer takes on grief, loss, refugees, and a world where Santa has just plain given up and gone to live in a homeless encampment -- where a 11-year-old girl enlists him to help find her lost mom. Juniper's Christmas delivers wild adventures while tugging the heartstrings and tickling the funnybone. Amid the crazy shenanigans, flying reindeer, and cartoon villains, there's the realization that Christmas just makes people nice to each other, which is a good reason to keep it.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about Santa stories, especially the ones that tell where he came from and how he got the job. What do you think of the way Juniper's Christmas tells the tale?
A lot of what's known by science today was once seen as magic. Do you think that someday science will understand what we call magic now?
If you suddenly had to do Santa's job like Juniper does in the story, what would you do? Who would you visit first?
How do Juniper and other characters in the park show compassion, empathy, and gratitude? How do these qualities help in such dark times?
Available on:
Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
Last updated:
November 29, 2023
Did we miss something on diversity?
Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by
Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
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