Rosh's Reviews

AUTHOR: Stef Wade ILLUSTRATOR: Erin Taylor GENRE: Children's Picture Book PUBLICATION DATE: August 1, 2026 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A lovely picture book about accepting yourself and acknowledging your worth. Simple story with many essential messages delivered effectively. Cute illustrations too. Recommended. Plot Preview: Doug Fir is sad that his life doesn’t change. All the others in the forest, whether animals or trees, change their looks or their behaviour according to the season. But Doug is always the same old green. The other evergreens are happy to stay the same but Doug is eager for a change in his routine. His friend Robin suggests he take advice from Queenie the Queen Palm, an evergreen palm in Florida. Using Robin as their messenger, Doug and Queenie begin exchanging letters, and Queenie helps Doug realise something quite important. This picture book uses a fairly straightforward plot to make its main point. But the beauty of the story is that it delivers mult...

AUTHOR: Robert E. Barry GENRE: Children's Picture Book PUBLICATION DATE: January 1, 1963 RATING: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A comically sweet Christmas picture book. Lovely story, lovely characters, lovely illustrations. A classic for a reason. Definitely recommended. Plot Preview: Mr. Willowby is quite excited that his Christmas tree delivery has finally arrived. Unfortunately, the tree is just a tad too tall for his parlour. He gets his butler to cut off the top so that it fits just right. The butler knows just the right person who would be happy to decorate the tree top in their room, so he passes it to his friend, the maid. She is very excited but the top is just a tad too tall for her room. So she snips off a bit from the top, discards it, and decorates the rest. The broken piece is found by…. Read the book to find out! I didn’t intend to read a Christmas book beyond the festive season, but c’est la vie. 😁 We all know that Christmas trees are *trimmed* with plenty of wonderful...

AUTHOR & ILLUSTRATOR: Peter H. Reynolds SERIES: Word Collector #2 GENRE: Children's Picture Book PUBLICATION DATE: October 7, 2025 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A lovely picture book about the beauty and power of words. Set around Christmas season but applicable throughout the year. Adorable lead character, wonderful message and stunning illustrations. Much recommended. Plot Preview: Young Jerome loves collecting words. Every now and then, he takes his little notebook and walks through town looking for new words with his rescue dog Ekka for company. But this holiday season, he cannot find any words that "warm his heart" even though he looks everywhere. Then an idea strikes him. If he cannot find the words he likes, what if he shares the good words that he already has with the world? I've been on a reading binge of whatever picture books I can find written by Peter H. Reynolds. His heartwarming writing and beautiful illustrations are just what I need when the ...

AUTHOR:  Suzanne Rogerson NARRATOR:  Colette Davies-Kerwin GENRE: Contemporary Christmas Short Stories PUBLICATION DATE: November 17, 2025 RATING: 3.8 stars. In a Nutshell: A sweet collection of holiday short stories. Covering varied characters and emotions. Utterly feel-good and perfect for the festive season.  This collection contains eight short stories. As the title promises, each of them contains “a little Christmas magic”. The word ‘magic’ is used in both its interpretations: figurative and actual. Goodreads shows this book to be a part of the Winter Warmers series, but the series comprises short story collections that are independent of each other and hence can be read in any order.  As feel-good stories set during the Christmas season, the tales are obviously heartwarming. You might even assume that these are predictable, and many of them are. BUT this genre is anyway not meant to be twisty. AND there are a few stories that offer unexpected surprises, so...

AUTHOR: Emma Davies GENRE: Contemporary Romance. PUBLICATION DATE: October 8, 2025 RATING: 2 stars. In a Nutshell: A contemporary fiction with middle-aged characters. Promoted as a romance, but it barely meets the bill. Some decent characters, but a couple of annoying ones as well. Lacklustre character development, decent plot, slow pace, some good emotions. Attempts magical realism but fails. Might work better if you are looking for a contemplative story than a feel-good or romantic one. Suspension of disbelief required. This is an outlier opinion. Plot Preview: After visiting her old aunt, middle-aged Peg is on her way back home hoping to reach quickly, but an unexpected traffic jam blocks her progress on the highway. Stuck in the same jam is Henry, who is on his way to his son’s house for Christmas. The two had met coincidentally just some hours ago at the petrol station, so when Peg sees Henry, she strikes up a conversation. Their chat is mutually enjoyable and when the jam finally...

AUTHOR: Archie Superstars GENRE: Comic. PUBLICATION DATE: October 20, 2020 RATING: 3.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A collection of some of the best Christmas stories from Archies comics dating from the 1950s to the 2010s. A good option for those who want to enjoy the antics of Archie and gang with a festive flavour. This comics compilation collects some wonderful Christmas tales published in Archies comics over the years. Most of the stories are either humorous or heartwarming; sometimes, both. The stories are arranged in chronological order, with the first section coming from the 1950s and the final one from the 2010s. I am not a big fan of the newer comics. ( This is true not just for Archie’s, but for most long-term comics .) The present-day stories simply don’t have the same appeal as the strips from a few decades before. So it was great to a major chunk for the book coming from the comics between 1950 to 2000, with just a handful of stories being from this century. This book offers an i...

AUTHOR: Clodagh Murphy GENRE: Romance. PUBLICATION DATE: September 6, 2025 RATING: 3.75 stars. In a Nutshell: A romantic comedy filled with the Irish festive spirit. Forced proximity trope. A good balance of comedy and emotions, though it never gets too intense. Nice characters, though a few are a bit too pushy. Sweet romance, with a teeny bit of steam. A heartwarming read with only a few misses and eyerolls. (Coming from this Grinch, consider this a compliment.) Recommended. Plot Preview: When her boyfriend breaks up with her just a few days before Christmas, Mary McBride longs for a morale boost with her loving family back in Dingle. So she books a last-minute flight from New York to Ireland, hoping to surprise her family. When she reaches home, she discovers that her family had the very same idea, and they have gone to New York to surprise her. Worse, they entered into a house-swap agreement, and Mary has to handle the grumpy Evan Prentiss, who wants his temporary house all to himse...

AUTHOR: Sheila Walsh ILLUSTRATOR: Marcin Piwowarski GENRE: Children's Picture Book, Christmas. PUBLICATION DATE: November 4, 2025 RATING: In a Nutshell: A Christmas picture book about a little girl who dreams of one thing and gets something else. A cute story with a nice Christmas message and lovely illustrations. But the rhymes were a bit off. I might have liked this better if it were written in simple prose. Could work better with those who aren’t particular about poetic meter while reading aloud to their kids. Plot Preview: Isabella has always dreamed of playing an angel in the annual Nativity play, so when she sees the call for auditions, she is quite excited and rehearses all her lines well. But when she gets selected to play the drummer girl – a role with no lines, she is heartbroken. Why is this Christmas so disappointing? Is there any way it will improve? The story comes to us in Isabella’s first-person POV. A few years ago, our Children’s Choir team was putting up a chora...

AUTHOR: Emily Norris ILLUSTRATOR: Malgorzata Detner GENRE: Music. PUBLICATION DATE: July 15, 2025 RATING: 4 stars. In a Nutshell: A beginner’s set of holiday songs for the piano. Easy enough, but basic music knowledge is required. Recommended to those who can sight-read notes on the two clefs. I had read this author’s earlier book, ‘My First Piano Lessons’ last year and found it very helpful as a beginner’s guide to playing on the piano. This book, the third in her Beginners series, takes the journey to the next level. The book contains music sheets for twenty-five Christmas songs. Many of the songs are classic carols, but there are a few relatively unknown inclusions as well. The carols are fairly divided between religious carols (Come to the manger, The First Noel,…) and generic holiday songs (We Wish You a Merry Christmas, The Holly and the Ivy,…) The overall variety is quite good. The initial hand positions and note letters have been clearly indicated at the top of each song sheet...

AUTHOR: Nita Prose SERIES: Molly the Maid, #2.5 GENRE: Holiday Mystery novella. PUBLICATION DATE: October 1, 2024 RATING: 3.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A Christmas novella featuring Molly the Maid. Contains more mistletoe than mystery. The same setting and characters from the book series. Might be a good option for Molly fans, but not a must-read except for one plot development. Not a standalone. Plot Preview: Set a couple of years after Book Two, Molly is still the Head Maid at the Regency Grand. Her beloved Juan Manuel is now a pastry chef. While they had been happy over the past five years, Juan Manuel is now behaving strangely. Molly knows that something is wrong, but she can't figure out what it is. Has Juan Manuel finally grown frustrated with her? The story comes to us in Molly's first-person perspective. I had enjoyed the first two books of the Molly the Maid series, and am looking forward to the final book of the trilogy. This Christmas novella, being set in between B...

EDITORS: Jerry Pinto & Madhulika Liddle GENRE: Essay Anthology PUBLICATION DATE: September 10, 2024 RATING: 3.65 stars. In a Nutshell: An essay collection containing various memories and accounts of Christmas celebrations in India. Writers from diverse backgrounds, stories from across the country, celebrations from varied financial and cultural strata. The essays themselves are a mixed bag, but on the whole it offers a good glimpse of that strange medley of humans known as “Indian Christians” and how they celebrate this special day. As an Indian Christian, I have often been at the receiving end of befuddling reactions from friends, acquaintances, and colleagues throughout my life. Astonishment on learning that I watch Bollywood movies and know plenty of Hindi songs, shock that I am a teetotaller ( “I thought all Christians drink!” ), suspicion that I have “converted” to Christianity after marriage ('Coz my name ain’t a “Catholic” name! ), confusion that I wear sarees and sal...

AUTHOR: Ingvild H. Rishøi TRANSLATOR: Caroline Waight GENRE: Literary Fiction PUBLICATION DATE: November 19, 2024 RATING: 3.75 stars. In a Nutshell: A Scandinavian literary fiction with a different kind of Christmas story, somewhat inspired by ‘The Little Match Girl.’ Don’t trust that joyous cover and the title; the story is dark and emotional. The ending is left open to interpretation, which might go either way for readers. Not for those looking for feel-good Christmas tales. Plot Preview: Tøyen, Norway. Ten-year-old Ronja is a dreamer. But she is also practical. Her alcoholic father is out of work again, so when Ronja gets to know about a job at the local Christmas tree stand, she pushes him to get it. For a few days, things are “brightly shining” for Ronja and her elder sister Melissa. But then, her father falls back to his old ways and loses the job, after having taken a huge advance on his salary. Melissa decides to take his place so that the motherless siblings aren’t sent to f...

  EDITOR: L. Stephenson GENRE: Christmas Horror Anthology PUBLICATION DATE:  December 12, 2024 RATING: 3.3 stars. In a Nutshell: A short-fiction anthology filled with Christmassy horror. Some really good stories here, though I wish there had been more variety in the “source of the evil.” A good option for those who are fed up of saccharine seasonal stories. This is the time of the year when readers are torn between spooky season and Christmas season. Here's a book that combines both. 😉 This indie anthology contains twenty-six stories by twenty-six writers. There’s no editor’s note, but the title and the tagline make the theme clear – it is a “Christmas horror” anthology. The stories are mostly fast-paced, which works well in this genre. After the first few stories, I wondered why a majority of them were using the Christmas tree as the horror device-of-choice. It occurred frequently enough for me to start eyeing every Christmas tree in the stories suspiciously. Only after...