Lucy Daniel Raby

Orphaned as an infant one Winter Solstice Eve, when the evil elf Magda, banished to the subterranean Vortex for her wicked deeds, returns and destroys the great Elf Kingdom, Nickolai Grishkin is rescued by the flying reindeer Comet, and given to a human couple to be raised. Aware from a very young age that he is different, Nickolai grows into adolescence in the northern village of Norsk, only discovering that he is the adopted son of Hannah and Joe when he meets Comet again. When Magda show more creates Doransk, a fabulous city of gold in the far north, toward which a steady stream of human travelers head, Nickolai decides that he too must seek this extraordinary city, in order to discover more of his true heritage. Once there, the terrible truth about Magda and what she is doing - robbing children of their childhood, in order to make herself appear beautiful and young - is revealed, and Nickolai and his friends - human, fairy, and reindeer - must struggle to overthrow her, and save the world's children from a fate worse than death...

I wanted to enjoy Nicholai of the North more than I did. I've owned it for quite a number of years, but have never managed to read it before, probably because I was always saving it for the holiday season, and then not getting around to it at the appropriate time. In any case, this past year (2019) I decided it was finally time. Although the story idea was interesting, somehow I couldn't enter wholly into the reading, and found I could only get through a little bit at a time. It's difficult to pinpoint anything specific in the writing that put me off, although I did find the author's use of setting rather confusing. It felt both modern and historical - mention is made of horse-drawn carts, at one point - but also oddly ahistoric. Raby describes Inuit residents of the far north, leading me to think that the setting is North America, but her time period seems well before there would be a large Euro-American/Canadian presence. It's all a little odd, and no doubt suffered in comparison to another "Santa origin fantasy" I recently read, William Joyce's Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King, which provided an engrossing and fast-paced read. In addition to my fairly lackluster reaction to the story itself, I was also disturbed to see a number of errors and vagaries in Lucy Daniel Raby's afterword, that might mislead young readers. The original St. Nicholas was not a Turkish saint as she claims, although he lived in what is now Turkey. Rather, he was a Greek living in Asia Minor, at a time before Turkey existed. Candlemas, which occurs on February 2nd, is widely considered the end of the longer Christmas season, but is not the pagan holiday onto which Christmas was "grafted." It was Saturnalia and/or the Winter Solstice that determined the celebration of Christmas at its current place in the calendar. Surely, even a little bit of research could have clarified these matters for the author?

I already own the sequel to this one (Nickolai's Quest), so I will probably read it despite my less-than-enthusiastic response to Nicholai of the North. That said, I'm not sure that I strongly recommend this, as I think there are better Santa fantasies out there, from the William Joyce, mentioned above, to L. Frank Baum's The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. show less

I picked this up in an attempt to boost my festive spirit during the run-up to our Christmas break, and finished it on Christmas Eve night. Perfect timing! And a perfect choice. Raby has taken a typically probing question by her young daughter, about what Santa was like as a child and where he came from, and spun it into this original fairytale for the older child/younger teen market.

This is a story about a little boy, Nickolai, and his search for his family. After a horrific attack on the show more Elfin kingdom by the witch Magda and her evil band of demons and goblins, baby Nickolai is snatched from the snow by a flying reindeer just as Magda's vicious wolves are closing in. Deposited down a chimney in the nearest 'Two-Legs' village, Nickolai grows into a young man in the care of old Joe and Hannah, and makes new friends in his town. Hearing rumours of a new Golden City further north, Nickolai and his friends travel to investigate. For Nick, this is a quest to finally find out who he is; for his friends and their families, it is a chance at a new life. But all that glitters is not gold, and when a terrible plot is uncovered, threatening childhood forever, it's up to Nick and his old reindeer friends to save the day.

This is a wonderful book to give to children at Christmas, weaving together all kinds of Christmassy magic and mythology into one action-packed story. There are fairies and wolves, demons and witches, elves and reindeer, Northern Lights and streets paved with gold, sleigh rides and a magical forest. There are hideously evil and twisted characters who seem to be unstoppable in their dastardly plots to destroy the world, and there are good, brave and courageous people who must fight to win the day. And ultimately, as you may have guessed from the title, this is the story of the boy who grew up to be Santa. Recommended for children, and anyone who still looks out of their window on Christmas Eve and secretly hopes to see that reindeer-drawn sleigh twinkling across the sky... show less

This book is a delightful Santa origin story featuring elves and magic reindeer and an evil villain. I'm not going to rate this one because I'm well above the target market! I used to read it every year in December (a chapter a day like an Advent Calendar). It's definitely a lot simpler than most of the books I read now (makes sense as it's aimed at people far younger than me) but I can still see the magic that drew me in back then. I would definitely recommend it to younger readers, maybe show more as a December bedtime tradition! show less