The Paper Bag Christmas by Kevin Alan Milne

So ever since I read The Final Note, I've been on a Kevin Alan Milne kick. The Paper Bag Christmas, Milne's first novel, was just as heartrending as The Final Note, if not more so. (Okay, it was definitely more poignantly touching and tear-jerking.) It's Christmastime, and Molar "Mo" Alan and his brother Aaron are recruited by quite a nontraditional Santa to spend time in the children's oncology ward of the local hospital in the weeks leading up to Christmas. They've been promised by Dr. Christopher K. Ringle - the nontraditional Santa whose lap Mo sat on at the mall - to receive "everything they've never wanted" for Christmas this year. Charged with making friends and collecting Christmas lists from the sick children, Mo and Aaron quickly take to their new role. There's only one problem: Mo can't seem to get through to Katrina, a hardened young girl who wears a paper bag on her head because she feels too ugly to show the world her face.

When it's time to start rehearsing for the Christmas pageant, Katrina refuses to even participate. Mo challenges her to a gurney race (really just a dangerous game of chicken), and the lengths he goes through to ensure victory leave Katrina stunned. She reluctantly agrees to be in the pageant, but still won't give Mo the Christmas list Dr. Ringle asked him to collect. Christmas draws nearer, and the night of the pageant is like no other... Mo's first Paper Bag Christmas is one he will never forget, and neither will the reader.

I literally could not put this book down. It's a short, fast-paced read (only took me about an hour and twenty minutes), but the message Milne delivers will last a lifetime. There are few books that touch me so deeply that I actually cry, but The Paper Bag Christmas left me sobbing, even long after I finished reading it! It is one of the most beautiful, most heartfelt, and most touching books I have ever (and probably will ever) read. Strong emotional and thematic elements are the basis of this fantastic novel, and it is not for the faint of heart. While the books was predictable in a very bittersweet way, it was not disappointing in the least. Vivid descriptions, beautiful themes, and an overall sense of love flow through this book. To put it simply, Milne is a literary genius.

I would recommend this book for teens seventeen and older - the overall concept of the book is hard to deal with and just has a general plot that I wouldn't want to burden younger children with. However, Mo was only 9 when he had his first Paper Bag Christmas, but what he dealt with, while life-changing, is not something for younger teens to read about just yet.

To read more about childhood cancer, please visit http://www.childrenscancer.org/. St. Jude's and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) are two state of the art hospitals that make leaps and bounds with children. You can visit their websites at http://www.stjude.org/and http://www.chop.edu/.

Happy readings...