[Review] On Christmas Eve by Ann M. Martin

Title: On Christmas Eve
Author: Ann M. Martin
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Published: October 2007
Pages: 160p
ISBN: 9780439745895
Bought at Brash Basah ($2)

 

In the place where I belong, when September begins, shopping center will play Christmas song almost every day, and every hour, red and green and gold ornaments will be hanging all over the place. Christmas tree is ready to be found, and the lights are sparkling in the night. It is the same air that Ann Martin was trying to describe in this book.

The main character of this story is a nine years old girl named Tess McAlister. She lives with her family (mom, dad and her sister-Evvie) in the edge of town. The benefit living in the edge of town is they can get their own Christmas tree without spending money; they just walk in to the woods near their house and saw a tree.

Tess has a best friend named Sarah who lately spends every weekend at Tess’s house because her father is in the hospital and her mother is taking care of him. He has cancer. Sarah doesn’t believe in Christmas magic like Santa while Tess already put all her heart on to it. She is planning to meet and talk to Santa, ask some question on Christmas Eve. Even when Evvie already tried to convince her about Santa as just fantasy, Tess keeps her heart straight to her plan. She is ready to experience Christmas magic. So when Christmas is near she buys a present for Santa. She is planning to give it to him when she meets him later. Time flies and the jingle bells ring, it’s almost midnight December 24, Christmas Eve. The clock is ticking as Tess heart is bounding, and the Christmas magic begins.

Oww I forget to mention Sadie, Tess’s dog and according to Tess, Sadie is her second best friend in the world. Sadie will be a part of Tess’s Christmas magic that she was never imagining. The story is simple. Ann Martin was trying to describe all things that we usually have during Christmas Time, even though it feels more Western. Sarah that feels sad about her father illness becomes a little bit happy when Tess gave her an idea about Christmas Carols for her father, she becomes excited. And why is that? Simply because she has something to hold on to make her father happy. And what makes Tess very excited about Christmas Eve? Simply because she has something that she believes will happen on that night. They simply have hope. So this book is about hope. Finding the magic is a wonderful thing, but Christmas and Santa are all about hope. It’s powerful gift that you can share to your friend. If you have hope, you could be happy under any circumstances.

Ann Matthews Martin is an American children author who grew up in Princeton, New Jersey. Ann wrote several novels and the one that titled A Corner of the Universe won a Newbery Honor in 2003. Her novel, A Dog’s Life: The Autobiography of Stray was a winner of the ASPCA Henry Bergh Children’s Book Award. She always enjoyed writing evenbefore she was old enough to write. Now she lives in New York with her dog, Sadie and her cats.