CHERUB at Christmas

CHERUB #2.5

by Robert Muchamore

It’s Christmas Eve, and James is heading back to his old neighbourhood . . .

Genres: Short Stories, Adventure, Thriller, Mystery, Espionage

27 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Robert Muchamore was born in Islington, London in 1972. He still lives there, and worked as a private investigator up until 2005 and the critically-accepted release of Maximum Security.

The Hunger Games phenomenon is part of the huge YA / Children's book explosion that has grown, thanks to the British Rat pack of YA authors, Anthony Horowitz, Robert Muchamore, Mark A. Cooper and Charlie Higson. We owe much of the hunger games sucess to authors such as Robert.

Robert was inspired to create the CHERUB series by his nephew after he complained about the lack of anything for them to read. CHERUB: The Recruit was Robert's first book and won the Red House Children's Book Award 2005 in the Older Readers Category.

Following the last book in the CHERUB series, it was revealed that a trilogy would be released starting from August 2011 that will focus on a new set of CHERUB agents centred upon Ryan Sharma and also involve an sixteen year old Lauren Adams. The first book will be called People's Republic.

Check out the Hendersons Boys series. Henderson's Boys is a series of young adult spy novels written by English author Robert Muchamore. The series follows Charles Henderson, the creator of the fictitious CHERUB organisation.
CHERUB is currently being made into a TV series.

Reviews

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice little story, focusing on several different characters as they spend Christmas Eve on CHERUB campus. This was a little longer than the previous CHERUB short story, Kerry's First Mission', and benefited from the increased page-length. We got more time with the characters we know and love, and get to see Christmas from some different perspectives. Unfortunately however, there is a such a jumble of crammed-together storylines that none of them ever realise their full potential.

James' trip to his old home is a bit pointless. The plotline about a retired (and really creepy) CHERUB agent coming for Christmas never seems to get wrapped up. The best part is actually getting to see Lauren and Kyle's punishment of cleaning up the ditches on campus, providing a nice bridge between books two and three. The whole thing ends pretty abruptly but provides a nice bit of insight into campus life.

[Natalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This did seem to be a bit of a mishmash rather than any coherent storyline… I mean it was obvious that everything was roughly set around, or to do with, Christmas in some way… but that’s kinda where it stops? 8’D

James and Bruce were Christmas shopping, Lauren and Kyle on punishment duty, Kerry on a mission, Gabrielle chaperoning a retired Cherub of 60+ years of age around the campus, James being pulled up for having not done homework, one of the instructors for some reason on a widely publicised charity quiz show (...what?), the old retired Cherub driving a golf buggy and causing a bit of mayhem… and a rather odd nativity play.

Would’ve been nice to have some actual present opening, or really just have some kind of proper conclusion in general to be honest... just seemed like a lot of half finished chapters :P

[Kireth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very short collection of sweet CHERUB stories around campus during Christmas time. James visits his old haunt with Bruce who shows some compassion, Lauren and Kyle are carrying out punishment duties from their actions during the 'Class A' novel, Kerry misses her friends at home whilst on her Japan mission, James has to complete his Russian homework, Meryl Streep is doing a reality TV show interview following her past sprinting career success and Gabrielle is giving a retired agent a campus tour. There's definitely a warm undercurrent to each chapter, with a mix of the slang, language and tough teenage attitude that is to be expected of this series, but it's a bit all over the place.

[Mella · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked this but the ending was very abrupt and random. I liked seeing Lauren though while she was being punished. She's so determined and resilient. And the old guy crashing was funny - although the explanation for why he was at campus never really was clear.