Review
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Title: Let Me Come In
Author: Richard Bugg
Publisher: Leicester Bay Books (www.leicesterbaybooks.com)
Genre: Christian Fiction
Year Published: 2014
Number of Pages: 21
Binding: Paperback
ISBN13: 978-0692232637
Price: $13.99
Reviewed By Trudy Thompson For the Mormon Association For Letters
This book could easily be called the modern day version of Clement C. Moore’s *The Night Before Christmas* with some interesting twists! It is a Christmas story in rhyme set to a modern story theme.
This imaginative tale starts with a harried husband and father two nights before Christmas: “Two nights before Christmas I sat on my bed, and more than just sugar plums danced in my head. Our savings depleted; my job quite unstable; my wife wanting clothes and a new kitchen table.”
The story goes on to tell how the children are fighting over who is first on Santa’s list and the three year old is concerned about how Santa will know that she and her dolly need the exact same pink dress.
Stressed, worried and tired, the father collapses into bed, when some time later he dreams he is awakened by a noise outside. It is, of course, a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer. But he’s shocked to see others present also. The Cratchits, Scrooge, Tiny Tim, King Arthur and Merlin, the Muppets and Chipmunks, Jack and The Beanstalk, The Little Match Girl and Frosty, along with others, were all present.
This all leaves him in a quandary and not knowing what to do. If he had a choice, he’d rather go back to bed. But, suddenly he hears a voice saying, “Let me in.” As he looks around he realizes that it was a voice that could best be heard in the heart. As the voice states again “let me in,” the whole crowd seems to hear and turns to a manger on the lawn, and kneels before it.
As Christmas Eve and day come, the man’s life and that of his family have taken on a new meaning as he prays for the spirit of Christmas, the spirit of love, and all the other blessings befitting them, to be sent from above.
The book ends with this verse: ” Our home now abounds not with money, or fame, but with unfettered love for the Holy of Name. I remember the stress and the fear that has been, but now my soul rejoices, ’cause I let Him in.”
The uniqueness of this book will make it a novel Christmas book for the home library.
This is an excellent book for adults and children alike. Parents could easily use this as a teaching tool as they instruct their children that it is not about the gifts, or the lights or the clothes, but instead, it’s about Jesus Christ. It would also serve as a gentle reminder to adults to stop and step back from the hustle, bustle, and stress of the season to show by example that it is Jesus whose birth we celebrate. This is what must remain in our hearts and thoughts at Christmas time.