Shannon's Library

LET’S GET EXCITED ABOUT THIS BOOK!

When Jack’s beloved stuffed pig, D.P. goes missing, his new stuffed animal, Christmas Pig, comes up with a daring plan to find and rescue D.P. Once a year, on Christmas Eve, Things can come alive and travel to the Land of the Lost. Jack and D.P. travel to this magical land, where no living boy has been before. Along the way they meet friends and enemies alike. Who can they trust? Where is D.P.? And how will they all get back home before the monstrous Loser gobbles them up? Read my full review of this book below. (And discover why I am reviewing a Christmas book in January!) If you enjoyed this book and this review, I’d love for you to leave a comment!

Shannon’s Rating — PG

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LET’S TALK ABOUT THIS BOOK!

January is the perfect time to talk about a Christmas book, right?? Ok. Maybe not. But there is a reason for this review of mine coming out right now. Bear with me!

“The Christmas Pig,” by J.K. Rowling is a fun-filled adventure for both kids and adults. My passion for Harry Potter runs deep. So, when I heard that J.K. Rowling had written another book, you bet I was going to buy it! I started reading it out loud with my son, Ty, before Christmas and we just finished it last night. Don’t judge! Christmas time gets busy, and this was a long book to get through when you’re reading it out loud!! But, oh how glad I am that we ended up finishing it this particular week. (More on that later!)

This magical story is about a boy named, Jack, who has a beloved stuffed pig named, D.P., short for Dur Pig. When D.P. is lost on Christmas Eve, his stepsister Holly buys him a new, replacement pig which he calls, Christmas Pig. Jack immediately hates Christmas Pig because he isn’t D.P. All Jack cares about is finding D.P. Luckily, Christmas Eve is a time for magic. On this night, once a year, all things can come to life. Christmas Pig comes alive and tells Jack about the magical Land of the Lost, where all Things go when they are misplaced. Christmas Pig offers to take Jack to the Land of the Lost and help him find and rescue D.P. But they only have one night to do this. The magic will end on Christmas Day.

And so, Jack and Christmas Pig embark on a fantastic adventure together. They travel through all the various sites and towns in the Land of the Lost searching for D.P. There’s Disposable, where unvaluable Things are placed. Bother-It’s-Gone is where semi-valuable Things reside. And then there is the beautiful City of the Missed, where truly expensive and valuable Things live while waiting to be found. Surrounding all these cities are the dangerous Wastes of the Unlamented where the evil Loser (a gigantic, rather frightening robot-type monster) hunts Things for food.

Jake and Christmas Pig bravely search for D.P., meetings friends and enemies along the way. But where is D.P.? Time is running out!

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Be warned… if you haven’t read this book yet or don’t want to know where D.P. is or what happened to him, please stop reading right now. I have to talk about some spoilers in order to explain why this book was so important to my son and I right now in our lives. So, read no further if you don’t want spoilers…

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Well, Jack and Christmas Pig finally find D.P. on the Island of the Beloved. This is where the very most loved Things live while waiting to be found. But it is also where beloved Things go when their physical selves have been destroyed up in the Land of the Living. So, in a way, the Island of the Beloved is a type of heaven, where the spirits of beloved Things exist after their deaths. D.P. is there because he wasn’t just lost, he was run over by a truck and destroyed. Christmas Pig knew this all along and, by coming down into the Land of the Lost with Jack, he was hoping to trade places with D.P. and sacrifice himself so Jack could have D.P. back. Christmas Pig believed that Jack would never be able to love him as much as he loves D.P. because Christmas Pig was only a Replacement toy.

When Jack realizes that both D.P. and Christmas Pig can’t come back to the Land of the Living with him, he is devastated. Jack grew to love Christmas Pig throughout the course of their adventures together and was certain they would all be able to return home together. D.P. explains that Jack can save Christmas Pig from being eaten by the Loser, but that D.P. would have to remain on the Island of the Beloved. Jack sadly says goodbye to D.P. and leaves him on the island. Of, course Jack is able to save Christmas Pig and they make it back home in time for Christmas.

The moment where Jack and D.P. had to part was heart-wrenching. I could hardly read it because I was crying so hard. And so was Ty. You might remember me mentioning on my Instagram page last week that Ty was having a hard time with the loss of our beloved dog, Chester, over the summer. We are in the process of getting a new puppy and it’s bringing up a lot of the grief of losing Chester all over again. Ty has been crying every night for a couple of weeks now and sleeps holding his framed picture of himself and Chester. I’ve been so worried about how to help him through this grief. Well, as we’re reading this book and we reach the part where D.P. has essentially died and living on the Island of the Beloved, Ty and I both started making parallels between D.P. as our former dog, Chester and Christmas Pig as our soon-to-be new dog. We stopped the book and Ty started talking to me about how just because Jack grew to love Christmas Pig, that didn’t mean that he doesn’t love D.P. anymore. He doesn’t have to choose. He can love both. Ty asked me if he thought Chester was on an Island of Dogs, where the most loved dogs go after they die. We both thought that was a sweet thought and decided we certainly hoped there was a place like that for the very best dogs. Ty said he wished he could visit this special dog island and be able to hug Chester one more time. This was why reading that scene about Jack and D.P. saying goodbye to each other was so hard. We both started picturing parting from Chester before going off to bring a new dog home with us, just like Jack did with D.P. and Christmas Pig.

But this is why I love reading! Certain books at certain times in our lives can help us process difficult, traumatic, confusing, or life changing events. I’ve experienced this multiple times. Reading about Jack, D.P. and Christmas Pig’s experiences helped Ty (and myself) process the feelings of grief we are having over losing Chester. I didn’t know that Ty was both missing Chester and having anxieties about loving a new dog. How grateful I am that we happened to be reading “The Christmas Pig” this week, when Ty was experiencing so much sadness and confusion in his sweet little heart. It helped both of us to have a good cry together, imagine Chester living on the Island of Dogs, and talk about the all the feelings that come with bringing a new puppy into our home.

Thanks for bearing with me and reading a review about a Christmas book when it’s not really the Christmas season anymore!

Needless to say, this is now a beloved book in our household. I’m sure we’ll bring it out to read next December, and probably for many years to come. Thank you, J.K. Rowling, for working your magic once again!

P.S. One of my favorite things Ty does when we finish reading a book together is, if he loved it, he quietly asks if he can take it up to his room. “The Christmas Pig,” has been sitting on his nightstand, next to his picture of Chester, ever since we read it together!