Humbug Holiday

For two sixth graders who feel about school the way Scrooge feels about Christmas, a magical trip into Dickens’s tale is just what their spirits need.

It’s Christmastime at Palmdale Middle School, and the sixth grade class has organized a holiday banquet for local families in need. Best friends Devin and Frankie—short for Francine—are excited to eat, but they forgot to bring in food donations. They also didn’t read A Christmas Carol for Mr. Wexler’s English class. While the two fight over the school’s last copy, the library’s magic security gates suddenly transport them straight into Charles Dickens’s timeless tale, where they come face to face with grouchy Ebenezer Scrooge, who’s about to get a wake-up call from some ghosts on Christmas Eve.

As the ghosts show the stingy Scrooge the consequences of all the selfish choices he’s made in life, Devin and Frankie come to realize that they too have a few things to learn about kindness and generosity.

Reluctant readers “Devin and Frankie are wisecracking underachievers and their characterizations and dialogue ring true” in Tony Abbott’s Cracked Classics series (School Library Journal).