It’s another fabulously funny caper from Tom McLaughlin, thanks to his Accidental series. The Accidental Father Christmas is a great novel which doesn’t fail to hit the festive funny bone.
It’s another fabulously funny caper from Tom McLaughlin, thanks to his Ben is a curious kid. Does Father Christmas really, really exist? Ben has sent him plenty of letters over the years, all nicely written, asking for his dad to come home. But. Nothing. Dad is always very busy, at being very important.
‘He’s always working and he says this is his busiest time.’
Unfortunately that means that quite often, it’s just him and mum at home… and Ben would really like things to be different. However his pleas to Father Christmas go unanswered, and so Ben is beginning to doubt whether Father Christmas is actually real afterall…
Now the title gives a wonderful clue where this is going. I mentioned Ben was a curious kid, right? Well in his typical curious, inventive manner Ben decides to set a trap for Father Christmas, on Christmas Eve. That’ll prove whether or not he exists, once and for all. Right? Right. But it may just end up giving said important person a bad case of concussion too.
Oops. Those presents won’t deliver themselves. And then there’s those hapless soldiers. The UFO obsessed ones, who can’t quite figure out the reason behind strange sightings in the sky that always seem to appear on the night of 24th December. Hmmmm.
McLaughlin’s dialogue rich narrative sets quite a pace, and a nice big dollop of humour, as Ben and a rather dazed FC bumble their way through. The side kicks of Number 1, Number 2 and Number 3 provide plenty of giggles in a very intriguing side plot and that merges neatly at the close, providing a very satisfying conclusion.
With McLaughlin’s own pencil styled illustrations peppered throughout, The Accidental Father Christmas is a must for lovers of funny fiction.
The Accidental Father Christmas is a featured title in our curated collection of The Best Christmas Books For Children.
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