Tuesday 26 December 2023

A Saint Nicholas Eve Carol - Catholic Teen Books

A Saint Nicholas Eve Carol
From Catholic Teen Books
eISBN 9798215631430
ASIN B0CQJF1YLQ


This book is a little different. It is an Exquisite Corpse Story? No it is not about a dead body or a Catholic Relic, because that doesn’t sound very Christmasy, but Catholic Teen Books has several Christmas-themed ones to offer. An Exquisite Corpse is story written as a game in which each participant takes turns writing their contribution and then passing it to the next player to add to the story. The previous volumes are: The Christmas Lights, A Fowl Christmas and the forthcoming The Gift of the Angel Tree they are stories written in parts, serially. This one was a much more serious story and it is deeply moving. It was sort of an experiment. We are informed that:

“Catholic Teen Books is a collaborative website of authors who all write faith-based fiction for middle school and high school teens. In December of 2020, many of the Catholic Teen Books authors wrote a collaborative story, “The Christmas Lights,” for Christmas that was read on Jedlie’s Reading with Your Kids Podcast, on Christmas Eve.

In 2021, Catholic Teen Books authors collaborated on what became “A Fowl Christmas.” Jed again gave us a prompt, and one by one each of us wrote a section as the story was passed from author to author. Only the final author knew the entire story until we read it for the podcast.

In 2022, we added to our growing Christmas collective story collection with “A Saint Nicholas Eve Carol.”

We enjoyed these projects and wanted to share these fun, short stories with others. Proceeds from this e-book will be donated to Cross Catholic Outreach.
We hope you enjoy!”

And the description of the story is:

“Ebby's been paired with Bear, a kid with Down's Syndrome, for the St. Nicholas Eve Confirmation retreat. One minute she's scheming how to ditch Bear and the next she and her friend Pastelle are transported into a twisted vesion of Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

Will Ebby let Bear take the fall for her friends' mischief, or will Ebby stand up for him once she realizes there's a lot more to Bear than she realized?

"A Saint Nicholas Eve Carol" is a collective short story written sequentially in individual pieces by four Catholic Teen Books authors and originally presented aloud on Reading with Your Kids Podcast..”

The contributors are:

Antony Barone Kolenc
Carolyn Astfalk
Leslea Wahl
Corinna Turner

This one of the three available currently has the fewest contributors, but that does not distract from the story. Ebby’s has three dreams or visitors while dozing off on the confirmation retreat. They are watching A Christmas Carol, Ebby is finally in with the cool crowd. But this retreat she is paired with a boy with Down Syndrome, nicknamed Bear. She wants to ditch him from the start but the leader keeps insisting she learns from this weekend. When things go terribly wrong she must decide if she will cover the butts of the 3 cool kids or stand up for the truth and for Bear. She has to decide what type of person she wants to be. And the stakes high.

This is an excellent short story it is very moving. It is a story about friendship, faith, and figuring out who you are or who you want to be. Abigail – Ebby faces a hard choice. To find out what decision she makes you will need to read this excellent story. I can easily recommend this book and the previous two volumes, in the same style, and I greatly look forward to this year’s offering.

Please note: This is a collective short story written sequentially in individual pieces by four Catholic Teen Books authors and originally presented aloud on Reading with Your Kids Podcast. Proceeds from this e-book will be donated to Cross Catholic Outreach.

Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2023 Catholic Reading Plan!

Links to other reviews of books by the contributors:
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