Sam's Gift

The whole world is getting into the Holiday spirit. Everyone, it seems, except for 11-year-old Sam Park.

Stores play Christmas music. Neighbours hang up lights and gather in the town square for the lighting of the giant Christmas tree. At school, kids talk about what gifts they hope to get.

Sam plays Christmas carols at Youth Orchestra concerts and at her school concert. She hears about presents under the tree and turkey with stuffing and all the trimmings, all the while wondering what's it really like to have a family Christmas.

But as Sam's Korean mother points out, their family doesn't "do" Christmas. Or Hanukah, Easter or Eid. Or any of the other happy holidays that other people celebrate and enjoy.

So, no, there will be no Christmas at Sam's home, this year or any year.

They will avoid the Holidays, no matter how much Sam wishes this wasn't so. And nothing can change that.

Or can it? When a winter storm means Sam is stranded at her best friend Morley's house, it looks like Sam might get her Christmas wish.

Or will the storm, her mother and other 'surprises' ruin everything?

Sam's Gift is about being a girl caught between two cultures and finding her own unique voice and the courage to use it, third in the Morley Stories Series of novels for modern girls age 10 to 13.