Mia can't wait for the Winter Festival -- it's what her hometown, Flurry, Vermont, is famous for. Plus, maybe she can work up the courage to show the cute new boy, Yoshi, how much fun snowball fights can be.
There's just one problem: the weather forecast isn't predicting a single snowflake before the big day. And what's the Winter Festival without snow?
Canceling the festival would spell disaster for the local businesses, including the cozy inn that Mia's family runs. With the town in chaos, Mia is suddenly at odds with Yoshi and with her best friend, Lark. Can Mia save the festival in time . . . or is she in for a wintry mix of troubles?
Originally from Canada, Natalie Blitt grew up on a steady diet of loyalist adventure stories. It wasn’t until she moved to Chicago after graduating from McGill and receiving a journalism degree from the University of King’s College, that she learned that not everybody sees the loyalists as the heroes. Now living in the Chicago-area, she dreams up young adult novels of a different sort: more kissing, less guns, but always a lot of loyalty. Natalie works at an education think tank and lives with her husband and their three sons. She knows a lot about baseball. She has no choice.
Natalie is represented by Rena Rossner at the Deborah Harris Agency.
this is one of those books that is absolutely fluffy and useless but it was cute and the romance was sweet and it was a good christmas break type read. i had fun ✨🎀
A cute middle-grade read. Not as Christmassy as I would have liked, but it was still a sweet read. The lack of snow in Vermont reminded me a bit of the movie White Christmas. This dealt with a lot of issues that middle school kids face like blended families, growing apart from friends, and the angst of a first crush.
2020 Okay this was pretty adorable! And definitely let me relive the way I felt about my first big crush. I loved how embarrassed and sweet Mia would get around Yoshi. And I love how genuinely interested he was in her. I thought their whole dynamic was adorable, all around. And the way her dad acted when they were on their first "date" was totally cute.
I'm glad everything worked out in the end. Especially with Mia and Lark. Although, I do wish Lark would have liked Kyle back! I thought his crush on her was as equally sweet as Mia's crush on Yoshi.
I thought this was a cute little story, so I picked it up and read it. And I was right.
Mia lives in a little town in Vermont called Flurry, which is known for its infamous snow festival, and this year, Mia is a Junior service coordinator. However, the forecast predicts no snow. Add that to friend and crush troubles, along with family financial secrets, and Mia has a lot on her plate.
Even though the story takes place near Christmas, I consider this more of a winter story. And that suits me just fine. It works better or as a winter story as a Christmas story.
I can't really nitpick about any one thing I liked, cause I really enjoyed it all. It's a wonderful winter story, and if you like winter stories or middle-grade books, you should definitely read this one.
Super cute middle school age book about a town named Flurry that's hosting a Flurry Festival (obviously hoping for snow so it can play on the Flurry name). They've had a festival for decades and now face a festival with no snow in the forecast. The 7th grade class plans the festival and gets approval from the city council. Now that it's Mia's turn to be in charge, how can they make the festival work? Can it work without snow? And why are her mom and stepdad acting strange? Why does her best friend seem so annoyed with her? And does she have a crush on the new boy named Yoshi? Cute title, cute book, fun story. Super easy relaxing read and just what I need this time of year.
Although this was a cute story, I couldn't shake the feeling that it was loosely inspired by Gilmore Girls, and that affected my personal experience reading it. Also, I wish that the main characters were a little bit older. I understand that this is supposed to appeal to 4th - 7th grade readers, but I found it hard to believe that 12/13 year olds would be given so much responsibility in organizing a "famous" festival that deeply impacted the economy of the town. Furthermore, there were some heavier issues introduced in the story that never received the deeper consideration that we should be encouraging in our young readers. I wish that Lark had a voice in this book, and that the author spent a little more time delving into Yoshi's complicated emotions.
All in all, I think this would be an entertaining read for the intended demographic, but 4th & 5th grade might be a little too young to understand the anxiety of the "romantic relationship" portion of the story.
This is an easy read, but I don't know what young readers would get out of it. The book ends with a kiss, which is an okay ending, but the two things I would remember a month from now are 1) the kiss, and 2) the boy who conveniently liked the girl. It's not realistic, and again, I don't know what teenagers would get out of it. Another thing I found weird was the kid's dialogue, such as "Don't be difficult" on pg. 38, even though this book's setting is the 21st century (with GIFs already popular).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This was a great novel, yet a novel that could be a bit boring. I really loved the ending and thought the book was definitely well-written, and I also liked how the storyline was great. I highly recommend this to anyone, because the book was awesome!
Lydia received this book for Christmas and really liked this story. This has a romance in it with a girl having a crush on a boy and eventually they do kiss but this is a sweet romance story.
YOSHI IS VERY VERY CUTE!!!! (me as i say the same thing for every other book here on my christmas reading advent calendar...
he's really sweet to mia and i like that about him because he's just NATURALLY that way. doesn't seem forced or anything.
mia was really frustrating about the whole weather thing like... i get that the festival depends on snow, but did you really have to be that way to yoshi?