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The Doing of Good Deeds
Tiny Tim and The Ghost of Ebenezer Scrooge is the children’s edition to your previous award winning book. What motivated you to turn your story into a book for kids?
Hello! Thank you so much for inviting me here. To answer, the adult edition of the book had several themes and lessons and was too complicated for younger children, but I felt children could learn a valuable lesson from a children’s edition. I selected one of the major themes of the book that children understand and can relate with readily.
What were some parts of the story you absolutely had to keep when condensing this for kids?
1) Kindness to others. Something we ALL can do that can change the world, in my opinion. 2) The lesson that WE continue the goodness that is in this world that we inherit from those who came before us. Life goes on and so must also the doing of good deeds from generation to generation. Of course, all the main characters are there: Tiny Tim, Ebenezer Scrooge, Becky, and Jimmy!
The art in this book is stunning. What was the art collaboration process like with Voxillustrations?
Voxillustrations was such a great partner in capturing the essence of each page of story text in their art! I gave them detailed ideas of what I was looking for such as character actions, expressions, backgrounds, and the little details of Victorian life, and they worked hard to get each illustration just right for the story. This art style they call ‘Fantasy’. Love them!
What part of the classic Charles Dickens story speaks to you the most?
That we are all redeemable, no matter what the situation we are in, how hopeless things feel, or how far down we are. Thank you for letting me speak with our readers! It is such an honor!
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website
In the continuation to Charles Dickens’ beloved classic, ‘A Christmas Carol’, a troubled Tiny Tim, now grown-up, has ghosts of his own and is gently reminded what Christmas is all about.
Beautifully illustrated and told in verse, narration with audio Christmas Carols and print music editions add to the Christmas charm of this classic holiday sequel. (Christmas, Holiday, Children, Classics, Gift Book, Narrated, Christmas Carols, Picture Book)
Tiny Tim and The Ghost of Ebenezer Scrooge *Children’s Edition*
![Tiny Tim and The Ghost of Ebenezer Scrooge: The sequel to A Christmas Carol (Children's Edition - Narrated with Audio Christmas Carols) by [Norman Whaler, Voxillustrations, Esther Randell, David Deighton (UK)]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51caYJjd-nL.jpg)
Tiny Tim and the Ghost of Ebenezer Scrooge: The sequel to A Christmas Carol (Children’s Edition) by Norman Whaler, with illustrations by Voxillustrations, is a picture book intended for children aged 4 through 10. Set in London, Tiny Tim is now grown up. He loves Becky, but her parents will not allow a marriage between the two of them. After many years pass, Tim has started to forget the lessons he learned from Ebenezer Scrooge. He forgets the hardships of his childhood–and appreciating the simple joys of life. After Mr. Scrooge passes away seven days before Christmas, Tim is visited by Scrooge’s ghost. Will Tim finally remember the true spirit of Christmas?
I really enjoyed reading this book. It is a perfect story for parents to share with their children this holiday season. It has a good lesson about generosity and kindness, and a message of faith through trials and struggles. Quotes about kindness at the beginning of the book, including from scripture and literature, reinforce the message of the story. This book can be enjoyed even if a reader is not familiar with the classic Charles Dickens’ story, since there is a quick overview of A Christmas Carol in the first page of verses. The rhyming verses are fun and young children will enjoy looking at the pictures as the story is read to them. I liked the change in font to indicate strong emotion in the dialogue, and I enjoyed the happy ending. I wanted to know more about Becky and her son, Jimmy.
I loved all the vividly colored pictures with bright pinks and greens and beautiful scenery and landscapes. My two favorite pictures were the scenes of the bedroom at night and in the morning. The glow from the candle was very realistic. It actually appeared as though light was shining out of the book in this picture, and also the one where the sun was shining through the bedroom window the next day. The illustrator’s use of perspective was very good and many pictures had an impressive three dimensional look.
There are nine Christmas carols at the end of the story with lyrics and sheet music, which are a wonderful addition to this book.
Pages: 95 | ASIN: B08MKJT2YH
Tiny Tim and the Ghost of Ebenezer Scrooge – Audiobook
Tiny Tim is all grown up, and everything he loves and holds dear has been ripped from him. Upon the death of his dear friend, Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim begins to question each of his beliefs and the very faith that had been instilled in his family with the love of Scrooge himself years ago. Tim, now an adult, is faced with the loss of another of his dear loves, Becky. As fate would have it, Becky is simultaneously suffering through the most trying time of her young life on the streets with her young son and no place to lay their heads. Just as fate intervened fourteen years ago in the form of Ebenezer Scrooge, fate lays its hand on upon Tim once more.
Norman Whaler has crafted a beautiful tale of faith, hope, and love in his sequel to Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Tiny Tim and the Ghost of Ebenezer Scrooge – Audiobook details the events surrounding and immediately following the death of an aged Ebenezer Scrooge. Tim Cratchit, once the young crippled boy benefiting from Scrooge’s change of heart in A Christmas Carol, is impacted most of all by Scrooge’s death.
From beginning to end, Whaler’s sequel to the beloved classic pays homage to the original plot and the beautiful transformation made by its key character, Ebenezer Scrooge. Though Tiny Tim, now all grown up, is the title character, he also exhibits a change of heart similar to that of Scrooge. Tim fights a battle within himself as he struggles to regain his faith. Whaler does a phenomenal job of adhering to the feel of the original book with his references to Scrooge’s character transformation. The reader watches as Tim fights a similar battle and, ultimately, wins with Scrooge’s help.
As a fan of the original tale of Scrooge and the Cratchits, I could not help but fall in love with the parallel story line and the magic of three as it again reared its head in Tim’s life. The sound quality and voice over is exceptional in this audiobook and delivers this lovely story in a clear and crisp manner. Scrooge’s reappearance from the afterlife is expected but quite fitting. Whaler has done Dickens proud with this quick read rich with character development and steeped with faith.
Duration: 1 hour 54 minutes | ASIN: B01NAJJLXP
Tiny Tim and the Ghost of Ebenezer Scrooge
![Tiny Tim and The Ghost of Ebenezer Scrooge: The sequel to A Christmas Carol by [Whaler, Norman]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZW4IoqGXL.jpg)
It takes a bold artist to follow up a masterpiece. Far too often, the original creators can’t even recapture a work’s magic in its sequel. Sometimes though, the most devoted admirers are up to the task. Norman Whaler’s Tiny Tim and the Ghost of Ebenezer Scrooge – The Sequel to A Christmas Carol might be derivative, but it’s derivative in all the right ways. Whaler knows he’s trying to extend Dickens classic, and he succeeds.
Whaler opens his sequel by briefly summarizing the ending of A Christmas Carol – which quickly helps ground any readers who haven’t read it recently. Here, we see right away that Whaler makes the smart decision to evoke Dickens rather than imitate him. He echos Dickens’ source of tension in the characters’ lives: for crippling poverty still grips this corner of London. And with the newly philanthropic Ebenezer Scrooge now deceased, the citizens again find themselves facing an English winter without money for food or clothing.
My favorite part of the reading was hearing more from the side characters whose voices drive the plot. Unfortunately, the illustrations that start each chapter vary wildly in terms of style and medium. They all match the subject of the story well, but fail to match each other. Some appear hand drawn while others have been made on a computer. Even just applying the same filter to each illustration would have helped unify the novel.
Whaler clearly admires and respects Dickens, but I do think he missed out on an opportunity to be a little more self referential with the sequel – Dickens might very well have appreciated just such humor. Regardless, the voice and tone that first made this Christmas classic are there in full force. If you read the conclusion of Dickens’ original to your children while a cold winter blast beasts against the frame of the house, they might just turn up toward you and ask, as so many readers have over the decades, “what happens next?” In such an event, you now know where to turn.
Pages: 96 | ASIN: B076YGMGF9
LITERARY TITAN 