Now perhaps I should not have read Cornelia Funke's Hinter verzauberten Fenstern: Eine geheimnisvolle Adventsgeschichte (not seemingly available in English translation, this is basically a fantastical and mildly humorous story of a magical Advent Calendar that somehow comes to life, that mysteriously features actual and inhabited rooms, houses and the like behind its to be opened doors) immediately after having perused (and indeed both massively enjoyed and often emotionally cried over) Maja Lunde's both sad and sweetly enchanting Christmas ghost story Snøsøsteren. For after the moving and heart-wrenchingly lovely family type of tale that was and is the latter, immediately post that encountering Cornelia Funke's detailed descriptions of German siblings Claudia and Olli and their rather constant and often nasty bickering, I do have to admit that I am left with mostly considerable personally annoyance at how self-centred, how pushy and petty both Claudia and her little brother Olli usually tend to be towards one another (and indeed, even the children's parents kind of do feel more than a bit off to and for me and actually even remind me somewhat of their children and their frustrating squabbles). And indeed, while the story within the story of Hinter verzauberten Fenstern: Eine geheimnisvolle Adventsgeschichte certainly is both entertaining and reasonably engaging to a certain extent (and I do appreciate that the prince and later king of the magical Advent Calendar country that first Claudia and finally also Olli visit and both help rid of some annoying nasties, that he is called Harry the Ugly but is in fact universally loved and respected because he is of a cheerful disposition and has a loving and full of humour and joy heart in the proverbially right place), all of that is not really enough for me to consider more than two stars maximum for Hinter verzauberten Fenstern: Eine geheimnisvolle Adventsgeschichte, for even at the end of the tale, Olli and Claudia (whilst perhaps a trifle less annoying and squabbling) still in my humble opinion do act and react like sillily problematic sibling rivals (and yes indeed, even the children's adventures in the Advent Calendar land they have discovered do seem a bit rushed and with the universally happy ending feeling not only very much fairy tale like but also really and awfully deus ex machina, in so far that arch villain Rupert is trounced not only much too easily and readily but also with and by rather unbelievable and frustratingly ludicrous means, even if one considers and accepts the fantastical, fairy lore elements shown and presented by Cornelia Funke in Hinter verzauberten Fenstern: Eine geheimnisvolle Adventsgeschichte).