The Christmas Mystery

Rating:
Summary: For kids and for adults
Review: Although this title mostly follows Gaarder's style of beautiful writing, intertwined stories and happy ending, it's certainly written with the younger readers in mind. It is a mostly recommended read, both for kids and for adults, especially during Christmas time, which was when I read it.

It will make you integrate with Christmas ambiance and spirit, and really make you feel very... "christmassy"! At the same time, its quite entertaining and simplistic style makes it readable during any time of the day. If it grips you as it did me, you could read it overnight, although I preferred to read one chapter each day of December, as the book is designed.

Overall, if you're looking for a simple and yet clever Christmas story, for you or your kid(s), this is the one!

Rating:
Summary: Christmas Tradition
Review: Every year, the 1st of December we find The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder in our box of Christmas books, and start to read the first chapter. The book has 24 chapters, so we keep on reading, one chapter every day, untill Christmas Eve. And when we read we follow the little girl Elisabet from Norway around 1940, down through Europe and down through history, untill she, in the last chapter meets Joseph, Maria and the little newborn king. At the same time we meet the boy Joakim who finds a very special advent calendar in an old bookshop, the advent calendar has doors to open, and inside the doors Joakim finds small sheets of paper telling the fantastic story about Elisabet and her travel.
Is the story just a fantasy story, or is Elisabet a real girl, doing a real travel?

The Christmas Story tells us about all this, and alot more. For our family it is a must every Christmas. Not all kids want to listen to it every year, but mother will keep on reading it as long as her eyes allows her :-)

Britt Arnhild Lindland

Rating:
Summary: A Christmas Tradition
Review: I bought a copy of this book several years ago for my son. We read it aloud each evening leading up to Christmas. Since then, it has become a tradtion in our family to read a chapter a night every evening, usually starting after Thanksgiving. This will be our 4th reading, and already the children are asking if it's time for our "advent book" reading to begin. Each year we enjoy it more, as it reminds us of the deeper meaning of the holiday we celebrate.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone, and am ordering copies for my sister's family this year.

Rating:
Summary: Not For This Family
Review: I knew it was bad when, upon reading this book aloud to my family one Christmas, I looked around to find every last one of them asleep -- and snoring! We'd tried valiantly to give this book a serious go, as it came to us warmly recommended with the instructions to read it aloud each night before Christmas. Not only could we not follow the story, certain elements were downright irritating (dialogue, names) and it presented a mish mash of complicated little plots while at the same time seeming to go nowhere. On about night 5 of this, that's when I found everyone asleep, from my grade school daughter all the way up to my husband. That was certainly the best thing about this book -- the funny memories it gave us from that night. But, alas, we had to abandon ship and read something else much more interesting, entertaining and Christmassy. Sorry!

Rating:
Summary: A charming book.
Review: It was a rather charming and interesting book. Found it both unique and engrossing. However, not everything made sense first time.

Rating:
Summary: Not one of Gaarder's best works
Review: Jostein Gaarder ranks right up there on my list of favorite authors, but I did not feel that this was his best effort. It is very much in the same vein of "The Solitaire Mystery" (my all-time favorite book) and "Sophie's World" (the book that inspired me to get a philosophy minor in college), but covers the same principles talked about in "Solitaire Mystery". Read that one to get your socks blown off, read "The Christmas Mystery" around December to get in the spirit of the holidays!

Rating:
Summary: Not one of Gaarder's best works
Review: Jostein Gaarder ranks right up there on my list of favorite authors, but I did not feel that this was his best effort. It is very much in the same vein of "The Solitaire Mystery" (my all-time favorite book) and "Sophie's World" (the book that inspired me to get a philosophy minor in college), but covers the same principles talked about in "Solitaire Mystery". Read that one to get your socks blown off, read "The Christmas Mystery" around December to get in the spirit of the holidays!

Rating:
Summary: A delight for all ages
Review: This is a lovely book that I've given to children and adults the past 2 Christmases.

While not as intellectually rigorous as Sophie's World and not quite as captivating as The Solitaire Mystery (which you must, must read), The Christmas Mystery is more addictive than a bag of peanuts. Rarely have I found a book that appeals to children and adults alike -- but this one does.

Even if you have no background or real interest in Advent and Christmas, this book's fresh perspective will still delight.

Rating:
Summary: One of the great seasonal novels
Review: We have grown to expect striking and intelligent philosophy and thought from Gaarder's books. The Christmas Mystery is, like The Solitaire Mystery, a deceptively simple and yet richly complex story. The only flaw, as far as I'm concerned, is a faint cloying sweetness to the story, but even this can easily be overlooked by the sheer cleverness and spirit of the narrative. It is a potted history of Christmas through the ages, its evolution - or rather, devolution, handled adeptly and intelligently. It is a true book for all the family, and should become compulsory seasonal reading along with A Night Before Christmas and The Christmas Carol. The nice thing about Gaarder is that his mysteries only open up yet more mysteries - he solves his mysteries and leaves us looking at the world through new eyes, trying to explain our own personal mysteries that we have only just noticed....

Rating:
Summary: A trip back in time to the birth of Christ,
Review: yet it's surrounded by a mystery which is imparted by a unique, handmade Advent calender. Joachim begins his trip back in time alone, but by the time he finishes the whole family is in on the adventure.

Each day starts with the opening of another door and a small slip of paper that tells the story. The adventure begins to unfold in a most mysterious way when we find out it is tied to a little girl who has been missing from their Norwegian town for many years.

I was lucky enough to listen to the book on tape, and was surprised and happy to find it was narrated by John McDonough who also narrated the Mitford series by Jan Karon. He is most memorable to me as the voice of Father Tim. Kelsana 12/05/01