Harper and Will are back again for another advent adventure this time with new sibling Yula! As with the first book there are road blocks to the perfect Christmas season namely a very misguided and job’s worth elf who threatens the family dynamic. 

It was great to see the feelings related to establishing a step-parent/step-child relationship be explored especially within the context of differing sibling views. It was particularly lovely to see that Will and Harper do not admonish or belittle each other either, providing a good template for supportive sibling interactions!

Slight spoilers ahead: 

The Christmas magic displayed was festive and fun but my only issue is that a lot of magic could have been explained away (F.I.B) had they been given the opportunity and Yula seemed to be some kind of baby genius, able to understand and respond to nuanced complex emotions/situions. Perhaps this part of her inherent magic but this is never explicitly stated. It would have felt far more compelling and high stakes to have the magic be truly intuitive with no grand statements attached to it - wilder. Thus, causing far more tension and sense of randomness ‘it could happen at any time’ and definitely not be explained  away.