The Santa Mysteries [Paperback]

S. William Shaw (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 7, 2007

Bennett Short has a dream and a plan. He is going to stow away aboard Santa's sleigh and explore the mysteries of the North Pole. Young Bennett dreams of writing a tell all book about Santa and making a gazillion dollars. But Bennett's plan is taken on a detour when his curiosity results in Santa being abducted by aliens. Along with his friends Darcy and Pickle, and a robot named Algore, Bennett travels across the stars to the icy planet of Tundra 57. If he fails to overcome the penguin fruit aliens and the football-headed tripods, Christmas will never be the same.

Product Details

• Paperback: 171 pages
• Publisher: Lulu.com (May 7, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1430322217
• ISBN-13: 978-1430322214
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,044,028 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Weeee! This Was fun, May 28, 2007

By 

Heidi of Oz (Parentland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Santa Mysteries (Paperback)

This was a fun book to read. I don't normally read children's fantasy books, but on the request of a friend I purchased The Santa Mysteries and gave it a try. And I was not let down. It was a great Christmas story, but it is at its heart a fantasy fiction book. I would call it a strange (in a good way) cross between the movie Monster House, Zathura, and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Raindeer.

The author states on his website that his books are for readers who liked Harry Potter, Narnia, and the Wizard of Oz. S. William Shaw was dead-on. If you like children's fantasy, this is an unforgettable must read.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun Read for the Whole Family, July 29, 2007

By 

Steven R. McEvoy "MCWPP" (Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Santa Mysteries (Paperback)

After finishing this book, my only regret was that there is not yet more available from Shaw. Shaw's writing style is very similar to Steven Brust, especially Brust's -- 'Vlad Taltos' books. This book is a fun, humourous, fast-paced book that will draw you in and keep you racing for the end, and then leave you wanting more.

This story focuses around the adventures of three youngsters; our man with a plan is Bennett Short, and his two sidekicks are Darcy Decker and the Pickle, aka Stanley Valentine. Bennett is a big fan of the Man in Red, and we do not mean the one with horns and pitchfork. Santa is his hero and he has a plan to sneak aboard Santa's sleigh. He wants to get to the North Pole and find out all the Santa Mysteries and write a tell-all book and make a gazillion dollars.

But as most of us know, things do not always go according to plan. Bennett and his friends do get to the North Pole and they get to hang out with Santa. However Darcy's curiosity leads to devastating results.

In this awesome little book you will find our Al Gore as a robot created by Santa, and see Santa abducted by aliens who hate Christmas and all that is fun. You will watch Darcy go from being arrogant and expecting Pickles to mess things up, to realizing that he does so again and again. Yet with all of that, Darcy never gives up and keeps striving to correct his mistakes and make up for the damage he has done.

This is in part a coming of age story, part adventure and a whole lot of fun. We watch Darcy grow and mature, and we in turn can learn from him and face the struggles and difficulties in our lives anew. The greatest power of story is that story at its best is myth, but not myth in something that is not real, but myth in the sense of the ultimate underlying reality of existence. Shaw captures the essence of that second type of myth in this and his other book Sherman Oak and the Magic Potato. In that sense, even though he has only published 2 books, he is in my opinion a great writer.

This is a book that was so fun to read I have already started it a second time, this time reading it more slowly to savor the story rather than racing through as I did the first time I read it.

This book would be a great end-of-term summer read!

(First published in Imprint 2007-07-27 in the book review column.)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unlikely Story ... Incredible Fun!, January 1, 2008

By 

David A. Hester (SW Ranches, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Santa Mysteries (Paperback)

I was looking for something different for the holidays, and the description certainly sounded like this book fit the bill - although I have to admit that I doubted that anyone could successfully combine the elements in the book's description into a coherent enjoyable story. I'm glad that I took the chance; Mr. Shaw has a genuine talent for spinning an imaginative, exciting and fast paced tale, however unlikely the individual elements may sound!

I think it's hard for a children's book to succeed when it lacks the exposure provided by one of the large national publishing houses like Scholastic, and this is a tragedy in many ways because writers like Mr. Shaw have to struggle for their voices to be heard, and we miss many great stories that simply never make it to the hands of the reading public. This book is superior to many of the offerings I've read from large national publishers that have been aggressively marketed over the years.

I highly recommend this book as a wonderful story for kids (boys and girls) in the 7 to 10 year age range. My compliments to Mr. Shaw for a great read that will be enjoyed by both my daughter and I for many years to come.