Swindle 8 – Jingle

Gordon Korman's Jingle is a heist story for 8 year olds about six friends stuck in elf costumes when a priceless star goes missing.

What happens

Every December the Colchester family opens its mansion for Santa's Workshop, and the whole town of Cedarville files through it. Parents queue in the snow. Children sit on Santa's knee. At the top of a twenty-five foot fir tree sits the Star of Prague, stained glass inside a crystal globe, dating back to the tenth century and worth more than anything else in town.

The letters land first. "Dear Elf," they say. Ben gets one, then Griffin, then Pitch, then all of them.

Nobody volunteered. Except Logan did, on everybody's behalf, because the woman who runs the theatre company that rejected him has a daughter who is an elf every year.

Pitch, who has just lost a rock-climbing trip in Sedona over this, has to be physically held back.

That's the setup, and it's beautifully done. Six children who cannot stand the plan, parents who adore the tradition too much to let them out of it, and Griffin Bing, the Man With The Plan, unable to plan his way out of green tights.

Then on opening night the power goes out for twelve minutes. When it comes back, the top of the tree is empty.

If your reader knows this crew already they'll be delighted. Ben has Ferret Face, a ferret who lives inside his shirt and bites him if he starts to fall asleep. Savannah has Luthor, a Doberman roughly the size of a pony. Melissa talks from behind a curtain of hair.

It's the eighth book about this gang, and it reintroduces everyone as it goes. A newcomer can follow it perfectly well. They just won't feel the history.

One thing to flag. The funniest thread is also the meanest. Darren Vader turns up, attaches himself to the Colchesters' visiting grandson, and spends the book sneering at Griffin's dad, at Ben's ferret and at the town itself. The friends give as good as they get, but a child who reads insults as real may find that stretch uncomfortable.

The rest is pure caper. A biker Santa on a backfiring Harley. A neighbour known as Miss Grinch putting up her own no-parking signs. An inventor father testing armour for peaches with a golf club.

What to read next

If they want more of the same crew first, go back one book to Swindle 7 - Unleashed. Same gang, same Long Island town, and Luthor deciding to chase down the pest control van.