This one comes from the official Berenstain Bears YouTube channel. It has other specials, episodes, and book readings.
Chapter By Chapter (usually) features me reading one chapter of the selected book at a time and reviewing it as if I were reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as a read-along book club.
By Charles Dickens
Last night we met with the Ghost Of Christmas Past. Tonight he will be visited by Ghost Of Christmas Present. I wonder if he still looks like Santa Claus in green?
The first Spirit showed Ebenezer the man he was, but also the man he should have become. The people we’re shown believed in family, festivity, and love. When those people died or left, Ebenezer lost the ability in all three. Now we have the Presents, the results of Ebenezer’s actions in the present when he disconnected from those things. We’ll have to wait on the consequences, but each Spirit comes with a theme that connects through Ebenezer Scrooge himself. What will he learn from this expedition?
Grab your coats because we’re taking a trip through London, and meeting three children who play an important part in these events. What three, you ask? You only know the one? Don’t forget who the Spirit hangs out with. They’re on this journey, too.
Stave 2: The Second Of The Three Spirits
Tell others about the Spotlight:
He had a comic strip in the 1980s. Getting a Christmas special was almost required by law. You may also know him for being on calendars around the same time.
Tell others about the Spotlight:
Chapter By Chapter (usually) features me reading one chapter of the selected book at a time and reviewing it as if I were reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as a read-along book club.
By Charles Dickens
In the previous chapter we were introduced to Ebenezer Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, Fred the nephew, and Jacob Marley, after being reminded a lot that Marley was dead even before we saw his ghost. It’s as if Dickens was expecting a Scooby-Doo plot twist: “It really was Marley. He’s been alive this whole time and plotting for seven years to scare Scrooge out of his estate.” “I would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn’t been for you meddling spirits!”
I looked up “stave” to see if it was a stand-in for the word chapter, but it actually means something closer to a line of verse. It’s not written like a poem, and certainly not intended to be sung, so it’s an odd choice to me. Still, that’s what we’re going by.
Tonight, Ebenezer will be visited by the Ghost Of Christmas Past, as in his past. He won’t be going back to the birth of Jesus, though I’m sure every time traveller has been there more times than the grassy knoll. How they kept from being spotted when the Bible only points to Joseph, Mary, and Jesus (the Three Kings actually went to their house because Herod was after the babe, one of many to misunderstand what He is King Of) is a question for another time. Grab your coats, we’re going on a field trip!
Stave 2: The First Of The Three Spirits
Tell others about the Spotlight:
I would have use the version from the official Veggietales channel on YouTube but for some reason their copy ends at Larry’s Silly Songs segment.
Tell others about the Spotlight:
Chapter By Chapter (usually) features me reading one chapter of the selected book at a time and reviewing it as if I were reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as a read-along book club.
By Charles Dickens
Welcome to the twenty second novel in the Chapter By Chapter review series. Also, while this is usually a weekly offering, for this last week before Christmas I’m doing this book all week, all five chapters (or “staves” as this book calls them), while trying to finish Captain Yuletide. This should be an easy book to track down, being in public domain. If you prefer a physical book there’s the library and it’s probably available in book stories, but a free eBook version can be found on Project Guttenberg, where I’m getting mine from, Google Books, the Internet Archive, and that’s just the sources I know.
This will be my first time reading this book outside of an excerpt in a pamphlet that’s part of my Christmas decorations. Like most of you I have also seen numerous adaptations and homages. I even saw one where Rich Little, a famous impersonator back in my day, played every role as a different celebrity. There’s also an animated version in the Christmas Specials playlist and a riff by Linkara of one of the live-action versions as well. I’ve seen Scrooge be played by Mister Magoo, Michael Cain, the fittingly chosen Scrooge McDuck, and numerous other animated versions over the years, and I think there’s something about the animated ones that really got the ghosts properly spooky, including the one from my youth I’m still hoping to track down someday. With so many adaptations live and animated that’s not an easy task when you’re trying to do other things in your life.
With that, it’s time to start the review, with a line that I find unintentionally amusing as an opening line, which is kind of mean considering the line.
BW Media Spotlight 