Illustrated by Shane Dervies, The Christmasaurus and the Winter Witch is an adventure fantasy by Tom Fletcher and the second book in the Christmasaurus series. The Christmas holidays have now begun and the Trundles, and Brenda and Pamela Payne are invited to a magical place of ice and snow. However, when the group returns home, Barry Payne, a rich toy store owner, comes to pick up his daughter for Christmas. Mr P is about to create a Christmas ban. Can William Trundle and the Christmasaurus beat the clock…or freeze it?
The book has many creatures, real and magical, from believing people and barking dogs to rhyming elves and grumpy sprites. However, the main characters are Brenda Payne the former naughty-lister, dinosaur-loving William Trundle and of course the soaring, roaring and friendly Christmasaurus! Out of all these, the Christmasaurus is my favorite character as he is extremely funny. When the dinosaur first sees the Winter Witch, he is instantly scared even though he’s a flying, sleigh-pulling dinosaur who others should be scared of.
One of the main themes is belief: most creatures at the North Pole will disappear if people don’t believe in them or Christmas. Because of Barry Payne, children forget about Christmas, and Santa, the elves and flying reindeer start to disappear. Another theme is magic. In order to travel through and freeze time, the Winter Witch requires a magical brain freeze. Also, the bean pods from the first Christmas tree need to be planted in temperatures below 0℃ in order to grow into toys.
Most of the book is set in a modern, realistic world with elements of fantasy such as living dinosaurs, a hidden snow ranch, tiny elves and more! However, a small part of the book describes a future world with flying police cars and twenty-decker buses.
The author has a unique writing style: there is quite a lot of narration addressing the reader. In this book, you need a Cosmos-Converting Candy Cane to see the North Pole. As part of the story takes place in the North Pole, the author says that Santa gave him permission to give the reader one of these so they can see the North Pole.
Looking for an adventure story about dinosaurs, magic and Christmas? Well, this is the book for you, I would recommend this book to 6-year-olds and older.
