Ho-Ho-NOOO!

Title: HO-HO-NOOO!: TJ and the Time Stumblers #4

Author: Bill Myers

Publisher: Tyndale

August 2011

ISBN: 978-1-4143-3456-1

Genre: Juvenile / Tweener

Ho-Ho-NOOO! is all about TJ Finkelstein learning the real meaning of Christmas as she prepares for her future as a world leader with a little help from her 23rd-century goofball friends, Tuna and Herby.

 In a competition with her middle sister, TJ races to earn money so she can give it to her father as a Christmas present; he’s lost his job and the family is preparing to spend their first Christmas without their mom. Thanks to Tuna and Herby’s help at her job interview, where their futuristic gadgets expose the true motivation of each candidate, TJ lands a job at the mall—making kids smile for Santa and eventually playing (a much smaller) Santa herself.

That job turns into a nanny gig for pop star Lady Goo-Goo’s spoiled and unattended kids. She also takes on a delivery job to help with dreamy Chad Steel’s plan to provide a hearty meal for the homeless on Christmas Eve . . . only to find herself delivering caviar cream puffs on the whim of TV star and classmate Hesper Breakahart. Despite all her work, her efforts to get money for Christmas backfire, but in the end TJ realizes Christmas is really about being with those she loves and sharing the love God has given through Christ.

HO-HO-NOOO! is very funny. I like it a lot because she finds herself in a lot of fixes. I sort of feel for the kids that she babysits because they never see their mom. She’s a major star and comes home at midnight. All her kids see their mom for a hi, bye and then she goes to her room for her “beauty rest.”  

I recommend HO-HO-NOOO! for kids who have major problems for their age, like family money problems and single parents due to some tragedy. Great for church libraries and Christian schools. Highly recommended. Ages 8 – 12. $5.38 Kindle. $6.99 Paperback. 176 pages.