The Girl Who Saved Christmas

<b><b>"If somewhere in the afterlife Roald Dahl met Charles Dickens and they cooked up a new Christmas tale, it couldn’t have much on this fleet, verbally rambunctious, heart-stealing follow-up to </b><i>A Boy Called Christmas</i><b>."—The <i>New York Times</i></b></b><br><b> </b><br> Amelia Wishart was the first child ever to receive a Christmas present. It was <i>her</i> Christmas spirit that gave Santa the extra boost of magic he needed to make his first trip around the world. But now Amelia is in trouble.<br>  <br> When her mother falls ill, she is sent to the workhouse to toil under cruel Mr. Creeper. For a whole year, Amelia scrubs the floors and eats watery gruel, without a whiff of kindness to keep her going. It’s not long before her hope begins to drain away.<br>  <br> Meanwhile, up at the North Pole, magic levels dip dangerously low as Christmas approaches, and Santa knows that something is gravely wrong. With the help of his trusty reindeer, a curious cat, and Charles Dickens, he sets out to find Amelia, the only girl who might be able to save Christmas. But first Amelia must learn to believe again. . . .<br><br><b>“Matt Haig has an empathy for the human condition, the light and the dark of it, and he uses the full palette to build his excellent stories.” —Neil Gaiman, Newbery-winning author of <i>The Graveyard Book</i></b><br><br>"With a little bit of naughty and a lot of nice, <b>this Christmastime yarn is a veritable sugarplum</b>." —<i>Kirkus Reviews</i>