"On Christmas Eve" by Ann M. Martin

It's been a tough couple of weeks for Tess' best friend, Sarah. Sarah's father has been in and out of the hospital and Sarah has been spending a lot of time with Tess' family. Tess decides that she is going to wait up on Christmas Eve so that she can ask Santa to help Sarah's father. As Christmas approaches, Tess fills her days with the normal pre-Christmas activities, decorating, gift shopping, baking and the Christmas pageant. The majority of the book is build-up to Christmas Eve.

This certainly is not my favorite of Martin's books. The plot is fine, but not super intriguing. Like many of the books she has written, this book is set during the 1950s, but there isn't an awful lot of the story that relies on the time period. It's a nice book to read during the Christmas season, but it's one of the few books by Martin that I only read once (now twice of course). Something I do like about this book is that the ending isn't wrapped up nicely with everyone living happily after ever (spoiler, there are some sad moments towards the end of the book). The Baby-Sitters Club series aside (except for certain books and the California Diaries), Martin's books touch on some difficult topics and I appreciate that. Her books are mostly aimed at younger readers and it's nice to see that Martin doesn't always sugar coat the world. I probably won't make this book a yearly read, but it's definitely worth a one time read.

Happy Reading!
-Melly