Autumn 2005 Review:

            The book Kringle is a fantasy novel about Santa Clause at the age of 12. The goblins attack his house in “The Bottoms” and he is forced out of his house by his guardian (his parents are both dead), Merwin, while she stays back and fights off the goblins. After he is left with nothing except the clothes on his back, he ends up going to a city that has been abandoned. Now that the only place he knows of is abandoned he goes to the woods in hope of finding a city, but instead he falls asleep under a tree and is discovered by elves where he lives for a while. The only thing on his mind is finding Merwin and his only hope to get her back from the goblins is to go to the goblin fortress. Can he destroy all of the goblins, get back Merwin, and find out about his parents?  That is what this novel is about.

            I thought this book was a terribly written story lacking a realistic plot. The story was not well written and was mostly a twelve year old boy thinking to himself in kindergarten level sentences, or repetitive short choppy sentences. Also, the story plot added too much to the traditional story of Santa Clause. I mean since when does Santa, or Kringle, attack goblins with a staff, or since when has Santa never heard of Jesus?  Kringle was one of the worst novels I have ever read, and would be best enjoyed by young men who act or wish they were children, but it is not the kind of book most teenagers would enjoy.

~ Michael McMaster, grade 8, Boardman Center Middle School.