This One My Daughter Can Have

I just finished a book that First Wildcard will be touring December 23. The Winter of the Candy Canes by Debbie Viguie is a teen novel about a girl named Candace who gets a seasonal job as one of Santa's elves at a local amusement park. It is part of a series called "Sweet Season", all about Candace and her adventures as an employee of that park. It is also the story of her friendships with schoolmates and fellow employees. I have to say it didn't end the way I thought it would, but yes, the ending was happy.

I've blogged before about why this Catholic reads Christian fiction, a genere generally written by, for and about Evangelical Protestants. You may have also noticed a couple of posts about books I've decided not to give my kids, even though I had them in mind when I ordered them. I don't read everything my daughter brings home, I'd never get time to read my books. However, I do try to keep a general eye on what she is reading. At her age I was going through ten books a week, and there is no way my mother could have followed everything I read, and I don't see the need to limit her reading material beyond what the school already does, since thier library is where she generally gets her books. However, for right or for wrong, I think that when I put a book in her hands, I'm endorsing it, and I'm not going to put a book in her hands that strongly endorses beliefs with which I disagree, or presents what I consider to be falsehoods as truths. Some of the Christian fiction books I read fall into that category; but this one does not. The main character is some sort of Protestant Christian. She leads a girls' Bible study and prayer is mentioned a couple of times in the book, and her Christianity definitely has an effect, in a positive way, on her life, and she's not afraid to talk about it, but the beliefs expressed are pretty generic and pretty limited. In short, I have no problem passing this book on to my daughter, and if she chooses to read it, maybe I'll let her write a guest post for me (proud mom brag here: As part of the assessment program, they had to write a pretend letter to the school board either supporting or opposing a hypothetical proposal to go to a four day school week. She got the highest possible score and the teacher said hers was the best in the class--and she is in a magnet school for advanced students).

I liked the story but I didn't like the book. I don't know what it is about teen fiction, but I've seen this in several books. One the cover and title page, the name of the story is not capitalized, nor is the author's name. The typeface in the book is Arial or something similar, which for some reason I don't like in a book. The grammar and punctuation in the book is fine (but I didn't go over it with a fine-toothed comb), it doesn't have that choppy language I've found in some other books, but I do wish they'd capitalize on the cover and change the typeface.

Check back next week to read the first paragraph.