The Tannenbaum Tailors and the Secret Snowball

The author sent my thirteen year old grandson, Kai, an autographed copy of his novel to review:

The Tannenbaum Tailors and the Secret Snowball was a very nice way to start the holidays. The novel begins with Commander Brendan Holly and his team navigating their Icicle (a common elf air-transport) through the wintry sky. A violent wind shakes the Icicle, but the team brings it back under control as they fly into their assigned home. This whole operation was just a practice simulation created using virtual reality. But virtual reality wouldn’t be able to train them for what they were going to experience this Christmas.

At the Home Tree, which is a giant Christmas tree in the North Pole, a fire starts due to a faulty bulb. Commander Brendan rushes to the fire with Captain Emery. Soon the smoke renders Emery unconscious while they were trying to fix one of the water hoses. After being hospitalized, Captain Emery decides to give Commander Brendan the title of captain while he is recovering at the hospital. But then there is another fire! Most people realize that it’s too big of a coincidence not to be connected to the first fire.

Brendan’s dad, Lt. Holly, an officer at the Home Tree, gets on the case with Brendan. At the light bulb warehouse, Lt. Holly gives Brendan a pair of goggles that can detect a blue spark that the Spiritless leave behind. The Spiritless are a group of elves that once worked for Santa but have decided that humans don’t deserve Christmas. The officers find out that the desk clerk is one of the Spiritless. But what is the Spiritless’s goal? Can Brendan stop them?

JB Michaels wrote an excellent Christmas story and I’m glad that he wrote a sequel (which I will review at a later date). The plot in the novel moves kind of quickly, which caused the novel to be shorter than it could have been, but it kept my attention...very nicely. The second novel will be the extra length that I was looking for. I definitely liked this novel and would recommend it to YA readers 12-18 years old.
 
RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

Comment: Just to clarify the four star rating, Kai thought the novel was way too short and it is the only reason for the deduction of one star. It’s something that I’ve used in the past unbeknown to Kai. His thoughts show me that he is analyzing a novel properly.