Usually hibernation season is late fall to early spring. Sorry that I took an extended hibernation for the past 9 months. But I wanted to post something before 2026 (my oh my) and something that would be appropriate for the season. So here’s this graphic novel debut by Pixar supervising animator, Bobby Podesta (Toy Story 3, Cars 3 and Soul). It’s the winter of 1955, and poor young Virginia is forced to be uprooted from her childhood hometown due to tragic events. TWO days before Christmas, even. Needless to say, the situation is unideal and certainly difficult for anyone, much less a 12 year old child.
It’s a simple Christmas tale. Our protagonist, Virginia, discovers one of Santa’s reindeer. It’s her responsibility, along with her crew of course, to steer it home in time for Christmas. If she doesn’t, or if the reindeer should fall into the wrong hands, Christmas would be ruined.
The story wastes no time in moving the plot along. Early on Virginia spots a brilliant flash streaking through the woods. Curiosity leads her on until…
Naturally, the reindeer conveniently left behind its magical compass. Virginia now has it and with it she can use it to track down the reindeer who needs the compass back to help guide it home to the North Pole, hence North For The Winter. Like I said, Podesta isn’t cracking any new eggs here but that’s perfectly okay. Sometimes a nice simple Christmas story hits the spot, tropes and all.
Sadly, Virginia’s mom died and her dad thought moving in with Aunt Frances would instill some more stability and normalcy after finding out how difficult it was to manage living just the two of them.
It isn’t long before we’re introduced to a key character named Benny who helps to move the story along. He and Virginia forge some kind of “bond” and it isn’t long before Benny helps her to track down the reindeer.
I loved this panel! Thanks for the laugh, Mr. Podesta. Perfect retort from Benny there. You can really sense the movie-like pacing of this graphic novel. No surprise seeing as how the author worked on Pixar films. It wouldn’t make for a bad animated film translation.
I love reading prose books but for a long while now have preferred the graphic novel medium. It’s just easier to consume and doesn’t nearly eat up as much time. I get distracted easily these days so graphic novels are a true blessing. And what better way to implement a letter than in a graphic novel. Imagine reading this in a regular book. It just wouldn’t be the same, y’kno?
CLOSING THOUGHTS
I won’t spoil the rest of the story. I mean, I’m sure you can surmise how it might all play out. It is a thicker middle grade graphic novel (352 pages) but there isn’t a terrible amount of dialogue so you’ll blow through the whole thing in a decent sitting or two. It’s not the greatest graphic novel I’ve ever read but it is very solid for a debut in particular and it definitely hits the Yuletide spot for times like these. If you’re looking for a fun and easy Christmas graphic novel read, then be sure to check out North For The Winter. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel nor does it need to. It does its job perfectly fine as a cozy and atmospheric read for this time of the year. I look forward to seeing what Bobby Podesta does next. I’d love to read a Halloween themed graphic novel from him, for sure! Anyway, thanks for stopping by even though I hadn’t updated in nearly 9 months. The next update won’t be nearly as long, I promise. Happy New Year y’all!
