Review Detail

Bettina's family is thrown into confusion on Christmas day when her mother must rush off to take care of a her grandmother, who has fallen. Bettina's father was already on his way for an annual visit to a querulous elderly relative, so leaving Bettina alone with one year old baby Pia seems like the best idea-- the nearby Pedersens will look in on her and help her take care of all of the farm animals. Things go fairly well until Klakke, the barn nisse who has lived with Bettina's family since her birth, gets upset because the family forgot his Christmas bowl of rice pudding and starts to get mischevious. He puts rosemary in the goat feed, hides tools, and then in an inspired moment, steals baby Pia when she is left outside. Pia is in turn stolen again, and it turns out that Klakke is involved in a family row with a relative named Ulf who used to work for Bettina's family, and once that is sorted out, he is willing to give Pia back, just in time for Bettina's parents to arrive home.

This is a charming winter read, complete with great descriptions of the wintery Danish forest covered in frost as well as the warm and cozy nisse houses. This had the magical charm of a much older book, and I can imagine many of my readers who like magical realism wanting to run off and find nisse to visit.