Reviews: (by author)

Vlahakis, Andrea. Christmas Eve Blizzard. Illus. Emanuel Schongut. Mt. Pleasant, SC: SylvanDell, 2005. ISBN 0-9764943-3-7. $15.95.

This book has a lot to recommend it; it's the story of a young boy saving a cardinal from frost and hunger, with his grandfather's help, just at Christmastime. The boy's good deed is rewarded in a most colorful, unique way. Vlahakis' prose is straightforward, yet even the undertone expresses the excitement of the rare event of caring for a cardinal miles away from where it should be. The story is inherently warm, yet Schongut manages to convey graphically the cold season of the cardinal's desperate situation along with the expressiveness of the main characters and, of course, the beautiful red of the cardinal. The ending, sort of magic realistic, adds a dimension of amazement. A good story for reading aloud.

A. Allison, March 2006

Back to Reviews U-Z