What's the Middle-Grade Book Equivalent of Die Hard is an Xmas Movie?

December 12, 2024 7:48 PM

Santa always brings my son Christmas books. Since Santa brings the books, they're basically books for next year. The thing is, I feel like he's kind of over books that are too about Christmas. So maybe I'm looking for books that aren't necessarily all about Christmas but are set at Christmas and have some general feel-good tone. He is 7.5, in Grade 2, and reads well above grade level.

Just to get ahead of this, Matt Haig books might work except that he's already seen them around the house so now Santa can't bring them. He has the Christmas Carroll's book that Santa brought last year and I don't think he's read it yet, though I think he actually might before Christmas.

Are there kids versions of cozy Christmas mysteries? Kids hallmark Christmas movies? Kids Die Hard (note: I've never seen Die Hard or Love Actually)?

He likes detectives/mysteries, thrillers, animals, historical stuff.

Recent favourite reads:

Percy Jackson Series
Geronimo Stilton and associated series
Assorted Kenneth Oppel books (Airborn, Darkwing, Silverwing)
Ghosts of the Titanic
Alcatraz vs. The Evil Librarians

He also likes reading non-fiction, so if there were a cool non-fiction book somehow Christmas related that would work, too. But...well there's the one little fiction we would want to maintain, since the book is coming from Santa Claus. Non-fiction fave reads:

The Curse of the Mummy: Uncovering Tutankhamun's Tomb
The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity
Plague-Busters!: Medicine's Battles with History's Deadliest Diseases

posted by If only I had a penguin... to Grab Bag (20 answers total)

Best answer: Hogfather by Terry Pratchett.
posted by SPrintF at 8:01 PM on December 12 [5 favorites]

Best answer: The Chronicles of Narnia would be a good fit, I think.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 8:04 PM on December 12 [6 favorites]

It's been a while, but maybe the Green Knowe books. The first, The Children of Green Knowe, includes Christmas.
posted by gudrun at 8:13 PM on December 12 [2 favorites]

The Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz - spy novels for kids.
posted by dianeF at 9:19 PM on December 12 [1 favorite]

The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper is a children's fantasy novel in which the plot takes place during Christmas. It can be read on its own despite being the second book in a series.
posted by RichardP at 9:58 PM on December 12 [26 favorites]

Came here to say Hogfather. Ostensibly about a (pseudo) Christmas, but being Pratchett, also a lot more.
posted by quinndexter at 12:57 AM on December 13

Greenglass House is so close to being perfect for this but maybe is a tiny bit for older kids? Check the plot summary - if not this year, definitely next!
posted by CheeseLouise at 3:23 AM on December 13 [2 favorites]

Has he read the Warriors series? It's about clans of feral cats. My son started to get really into them when he was 8 or 9, so age-wise should be just about right for your precocious reader.

Sorry-on preview, these books don't really contain explicit Christmas references throughout. Still a great rec for an animal-loving kid.
posted by little mouth at 5:29 AM on December 13

Best answer: nthing Pratchett, nthing Narnia.

The latest "____ is actually a Christmas movie" meme I've heard is that the Fellowship sets out on 25DEC, so Lord of the Rings is also a Christmas movie :D Voting JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis in the same post feels vaguely naughty, but hopefully not enough to put me on the naughty list
posted by adekllny at 5:38 AM on December 13 [1 favorite]

I need to second The Dark Is Rising more strongly than with a mere +.

It's a perfect Christmas book for when you're 9 years old. 7.5, if you're a strong reader.
posted by Jeanne at 6:10 AM on December 13 [5 favorites]

His Dark Materials / The Golden Compass series by Philip Pullman. Still my favorite series after 25 years!

I haven’t read any of the books on your original list, not sure how it compares content wise to those. It is a bit more advanced than Harry Potter in terms of reading level and content, but I can’t think of any particular elements that wouldn’t be appropriate for a very advanced 2nd grader. A bunch of it may go over his head I suppose or it may be too difficult and sit on a shelf for a year or two?

That said, I don’t know best practice for assessing kids content really, and I grew up reading pretty much anything with no constraints from a really young age so my calibration might be off.
posted by seemoorglass at 6:47 AM on December 13 [1 favorite]

Maybe The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, which is set in winter, and is sort of in between Dickens and Dahl.

Both The Dark is Rising and The Children of Green Knowe are excellent.
posted by plonkee at 6:54 AM on December 13 [2 favorites]

nth-ing The Dark Is Rising and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The former, though set in the twentieth century, brings in elements of old English lore in a way that absolutely captivated me as a kid.
posted by velvet_n_purrs at 6:57 AM on December 13 [1 favorite]

Had to also come in to say The Dark is Rising (and that whole series)
posted by BlueBlueElectricBlue at 10:39 AM on December 13

We do something similar, books that the kids loved
- A elk dropped in
-The Best/worst Christmas Pageant Ever
- The christmas cat story from James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small

I liked
- Family Under the Bridge
posted by mutt.cyberspace at 4:06 PM on December 13

Response by poster: Thanks, everyone. I think I'm going with the Narnia books, just because they're such classics and we haven't read them yet and the Hogfather.

Quick question about Green Knowe: Will he get that and enjoy even if he's not familier with tabletop games? It might be a good choice for next year. But he has a book that involves a girl who LARPs and I tried to explain it to him, but I think he just doesn't get it so he never really got into the book.

I can't wait to read His Dark Materials with him, but though he could read it and follow the plot now, those books have so much depth I think they'd be wasted on him now when he would miss so much. Santa can bring him those books when he's 30 and has a little more perspective and life experience and then we can talk about them!

(I'm totally fine with the Narnia Christian allegory going over his head, but if he doesn't get that his Dark Materials is about the Catholic Church and power and loss of innocence and puberty and sexual awakening and original sin(Wtf?), then what even is the point?? Just a story about a girl and her bear? God, I can't believe they file these books under 9-12 year olds. Do any 9-12 year olds even get these books?)
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 9:23 PM on December 13

Response by poster: Oops....hogfather won't come in time for Christmas, so it's just Narnia, I think. I got a boxed set.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 9:45 PM on December 13

"Quick question about Green Knowe: Will he get that and enjoy even if he's not familier with tabletop games? It might be a good choice for next year. But he has a book that involves a girl who LARPs and I tried to explain it to him, but I think he just doesn't get it so he never really got into the book."

? I don't think any of the Green Knowe books have anything to do with tabletop games? They're about different generations of children living in a house that's "haunted" (children from different times meet each other and can speak to each other, not traditional ghost-haunting).
posted by Shark Hat at 2:17 PM on December 15 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thats so weird...what book summary did i end up on where it all tied back ti the tabletop game? Ok thank you.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 5:49 PM on December 15

Response by poster: Oh, sorry, it was the greenglass house,about an rpg. Still make sensecwithout knowledge of RPGs?
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 5:50 PM on December 15