Rover saves Christmas Book

Is it wrong that I want to keep this book I bought a kid for Christmas? It's freaking hilarious! So I'm reading along, laughing a lot, and I stopped to read the back of the book again. Because there's a lot of wink-wink-nudge-nudge humor in this for adults, I thought Scholastic was making a funny when they listed the author's other books, and wrote "(winner of the Booker Prize)" next to one, and I was all like "haha that's a pretty highbrow joke," and then I was all like "oh wait, holy cow this is *that* Roddy Doyle, the ACTUAL Booker Prize winner, wait he writes kids books?"

It was a fun little moment.

This book is pretty droll, and I wonder if the humor might go over the heads of the US kids to whom this particular edition is marketed. There's a glossary in the back to explain the Irish slang/vocab, and it's funny. There are chapter subheadings that are funny, and there's a funny bit about borrowing an owl from a kid named Harry Potter.

Well played, Mr. Doyle, well played.

There's even a little teeny bit of sappiness along with the chortles, and a bit of a geography lesson as Santa and Rover (the dog) travel around the world delivering gifts.

Haha, just remembered one part where directions to a house are given. One house. Out of all the houses. Hilarious.

Read it!

Sorry, Nolan. This one might go in my stocking.