September 15, 2009
Betty Kowalski considers herself a good Christian, but she finds it impossible to love Jack Jones, a scruffy and suspicious character if ever she saw one. Imaginative and aging, Betty is a longtime widow whose grown children moved away and whose neighborhood is slowly decaying. She is in danger of becoming a sanctimonious and sternly judgmental old grouch, until a small but persistent mongrel and Avery, her runaway adult granddaughter, arrive on her doorstep two weeks before Christmas. While Carlsons story line is predictable, many supporting details are improbable, and the characters are more caricatures than fully realized personalities. Just the same, her contemporary variation on A Christmas Carol will likely please readers looking for a short, tender, Christian holiday tale.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)