Looking back on the Christmas season, we tend to think about the rushing around and the need to make sure the holidays are the best they could possibly be. End your holidays right with the book Let it Snow by authors Maureen Johnson, John Green, and Lauren Myracle.
Let it Snow is a novel that has three different short stories within that intermingle by the end of the whole novel.
In Jubilee Express written by Maureen Johnson, a teenage girl Jubilee Dougal has a crazy experience right before Christmas day. Getting a call saying that her parents have been arrested for their involvement in a riot, Jubilee is forced to stay with her grandparents until her parents are released. Along the way she gets stuck in a snowstorm, meets some interesting people and maybe even learns some things about herself too.
Following the events of Jubilee Express is A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle. Written by John Green, it’s obvious by the way he writes his characters and truly involves the meaning of Christmas that the short story is a good one. The story follows three friends Tobin, Duke (real name Angie), and JP. While watching a movie on Christmas Eve, Tobin gets a call from a friend saying that the trio needs to drive down to the nearest Waffle House to spend time with them. With a huge snowstorm brewing outside, the friends are hesitant, but go anyways. The story continues with their adventures while traveling. Along the way they reach conclusions about some unexpected truths and experience moments that Green makes sure will make you laugh.
Last is The Patron Saint of Pigs by Lauren Myracle. Within this tale, all of the characters from each distinct story make an appearance. Teenager Addie has become somewhat depressed about the fact that she and her boyfriend Jeb are no longer together. The story follows Addie and the great and crazy lengths she will go to, to ensure his happiness. However, this book is not just about cliché romances. The short story explains Addie as a person and how she realizes that thinking only of yourself will get you absolutely nowhere, especially during the holiday season.  I have not read many books that had a style of three different books in one.
In the beginning, I believed this book to be full of sappy romances and unrealistic plotlines. After picking it up and giving it a shot however, I didn’t feel that way at all. Being a fan of all three of these authors, they continued to show me why I enjoy their other novels in the first place. Each author is so unique with their characterization and writing style that it is interesting to see them placed back to back. While some critics might say that Let it Snow is hard to follow based on the sole fact of the intermingling plotlines, I disagree wholeheartedly. Because the different authors are good at what they do, it is easy to tell the difference and to really see how much fun these short stories were to write. The spotlight of Let it Snow follows Duke from A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle. It was hard to find just one character to connect with because of there being so many, but something about her made it impossible to ignore such a dynamic character.
Duke is considered a ‘tomboy’ in the eyes of her two best friends Tobin and JP. She knows this because the two never let her forget it. All she really wants as much as she would never admit it is to be looked at as an actual girl with actual feelings that can be hurt from time to time. I feel like any girl could relate to this. Just because you could be considered a tomboy, does not mean that you don’t think the same way girls do or have the same wants. Duke spends the whole length of the novel thinking about this and trying to make her wishes obvious. I wanted to spotlight her because she is a character who is funny, sarcastic, and full of heart which is rare in young adult novels. Duke is definitely a character worth studying while reading Let it Snow who has the capability to surprise the reader.
Let it Snow is a truly unique novel that shows how important love and friendship is during the holiday season. It’s a feel-good novel that anyone could learn from or even just to use as a means of entertainment. Let it Snow is funny, sharp, and down to earth, making it a novel that I truly enjoyed and will definitely come across again during future holiday seasons.