I know it’s not the Christmas season, but let’s have a little Christmas in July fun!

Summary

Bacon’s Very Important Christmas Job, written and illustrated by Tina Neely, is the story about Bacon, a potbelly pig who wants to help his forever family with Christmas preparations. He tries making toys, singing songs, and sealing the envelopes for Christmas cards. But nothing works out for him.

Isn’t there any job he can do for Christmas?

Turns out, there is!

My Review

The story is cute, overall. Bacon the pig wants a job at Christmas to make Santa’s job easier. He tries three things and fails miserably at each one. This makes him sad until on Christmas night, Santa comes to him with a huge bag Bacon thinks is presents for him.

But it’s not presents. It’s cookies. All the cookies Santa couldn’t eat. He doesn’t want the children to feel bad that he didn’t eat the cookies they left out for him, so he asks Bacon if he would like the job of eating all the leftover cookies. Bacon says yes. He’s a pig, after all.

I wanted to love this story, but I didn’t. I liked it. I get what the author was trying to do. And I believe kids will enjoy it. But as a children’s book author, the story fell short for me. I think a good editor would have been able to help make the story flow smoother. There are a few places where Bacon is saying, “Oink Diddy, Oink Diddy. Oink, oink, oink!” The story is in first person, so while it’s Bacon saying it, I don’t understand why there aren’t other fun words to say. It doesn’t really go with what’s happening in the story, but kids will enjoy saying it. It’s possible the phrase was set up in the first story, however, not everyone who reads this book will have read the first book.

I love that the job Bacon can do for Santa is to eat cookies. I love that his family loves him even when he messes up.

The author is also the illustrator, and while the illustrations are colorful, it’s obvious they aren’t done by a professional artist. Again, kids will be fine with them.

There are 500 hundred hearts for kids to find throughout the story. I thought that was way too many items for a young audience. And I would have done cookies instead of hearts. That would go better with the story.

The author is a Christian as she dedicated the book to Jesus and encourages the reader to never forget the true meaning of Christmas. Then she writes a story about Santa. That didn’t feel right to me. Kids who are unchurched won’t learn anything about the true meaning of Christmas from reading this story. My suggestion would have been to have Santa tell Bacon the real meaning of Christmas and THEN ask him to help eat all the cookies. Although, it’s my belief we shouldn’t tell kids there’s a magical, worldly Santa. I told my children about St. Nicholas. But as an editor, I always work to keep the story the way the author wants it.

In Conclusion

Families with young children will enjoy reading the story together. Especially if they have cookies and hot chocolate! Then, with each cookie they eat, they can say, “Oink Diddy, Oink Diddy. Oink, oink, oink!”

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Imhis LLC
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 27, 2024
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 36 pages
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8987775646
• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 3 - 7 years

Pam Halter is a former home-schooling mom, has been a children’s book author since 1995, a freelance children’s book editor since 2006, and was the children’s book editor for Fruitbearer Publishing until January 2023. She’s the author of Fairyeater, a YA fantasy, and the Willoughby and Friends picture book series (available on her website.) Pam has also published short stories in Ye Olde Dragon Books , the Whitstead Anthologies and Renewed Christmas Blessings. Her first short story won Readers Choice in Realmscapes.  

Pam lives in Southern New Jersey with her husband, Daryl, special needs adult daughter, Anna, and four cats. When she’s not writing, Pam enjoys spending time with her grands, reading, quilting, gardening, cooking, playing the piano, Bible study, and walking long country roads where she discovers fairy homes, emerging dragons, and trees eating wood gnomes.