Status Updates From The Christmas Pig

Ch. 8 The new stepsister is very emotional and hard to live with. She comes on weekends but is resentful. She is supposed to travel with her Mom for Christmas but suddenly shows up. She's angry at the world. Her mom comes, and there is a blowout. Jack hides in his bed and falls asleep before having any dinner. Blended families are not easy. Ask me how I know!

Ch. 5-7 More changes happens to Jack but DP is always by his side. His mom starts dating a guy name Brendan. She is a nurse and he is a doctor so they met at work. Here comes a surprising plot twist. They marry which is not the twist. Suddenly, someone who was so kind and generous and confided in him like he confided in DP is quite mean to him. It makes sense for nobody likes change. It’s hard to share your parent.

The holly is an evergreen shrub or *tree* so a reference to eternal life. The red berries are like the blood of Christ and some have sharp, pointed leaves like the crown of thorns. She’s a gymnast so you could say that she flies! LOL Because she is thought of as cool, she breaks the ice for Jack and now he has made a new friend named Rory. His constant companion is DP who can’t got to school to avoid getting lost.

Ch. 3-4 Jack has so much change in his young life. Dad moved to another country. He and Mom moved to be close to her parents, so a new school. He was very nervous on the first day but he met an older mentor through a reading program at school. How fun that it was through books that he made friends at school. Her name is Holly Macaulay, an interesting name, that goes really well with the idea of Christmas.

Ch. 1-2 The beginning reminds me of The Velveteen Rabbit<\i> so I am wondering if DP will be real some day. Jack sounds like an everyman kind of name. He is living the life that most kids face, an unstable family life.