Operation Nativity

Jenny Pearson's Operation Nativity is a very silly Christmas adventure for 9 year olds, in which the Angel Gabriel crash-lands in a sheep field in Hampshire.

What happens

Oscar is nearly twelve, and he's the one telling the story. His family normally has a quiet Christmas at home in Middlesbrough. This year they're summoned to Barlington Hall, Dad's family's enormous country house, for Grandmother's hundredth nativity play.

Mum is NOT keen. The last time she took part, she dangled from the church balcony in a gold leotard as the star (until the rope came loose). There was also a ram called Morris.

On the very first night, something smashes into the roof. Oscar and his little sister Molly creep out to the sheep field, Molly in her Gruffalo onesie and waving a cricket bat. They find a sobbing man in a glowing sheet, and it takes Oscar a while to accept he's the actual Angel Gabriel.

Gabriel wanted to put a bit of extra oomph into his big announcement. He overdid it, and now he's two thousand years out of place. Worse, Mary, Joseph and assorted nativity guests have come with him and are somewhere near the village. Who else is going to sort that out but two children in wellies?

Oscar tells it all like he's chatting to you at the kitchen table. He's cheeky about everyone, from Granny Roberts snoring through the Queen's Speech to Dad typing the wrong Hampshire into the satnav (the one in Massachusetts). Molly steals every scene she's in. She asks an archangel whether he's off back to Heaven to see her dead goldfish, Harold!

There's a sad thread under the jokes, and it's worth knowing about before you start. The family only goes because Grandfather is seriously ill, and Dad thinks this may be his last Christmas. It's there from the first chapter, handled gently.

Oscar sounds every bit of nearly twelve, and a nine-year-old who loves a funny family story will be fine. A younger listener might lose track of all the aunts, uncles and cousins. The nativity figures are played for laughs too, which most families will enjoy (you'll know if yours would rather they weren't).

What to read next

If Jenny Pearson's brand of family chaos goes down well, The Super-Miraculous Journey of Freddie Yates is in the library too. Freddie is another boy with a head full of facts, and his summer with best friends Ben and Charlie turns into a journey none of them planned. It opens with the death of his gran, so it's a slightly older read.