Celebrate Lit Blog Tour: Oddball Ornaments by Terry Overton

July 14, 2022

Book: Oddball Ornaments

Author: Terry Overton

Genre: Middle Grade Christmas Story

Release date: November 16, 2021

The ornaments in the attic are excited. It’s almost Turkey Day, and they know when they start smelling turkey, they’re going to be pulled down out of the attic and hung on a tree for the humans to enjoy. After all, Box Day is all about admiring the ornaments, isn’t it? But when Grandma joins them for Turkey Day instead of Box Day and brings a bunch of new ornaments with her, the Oddball Ornaments know something isn’t right. Determined to find out the source of Grandma’s sadness and what Box Day is really about, Nutcracker sets out on a quest to climb to the top of the tree to ask Angel about the true meaning of Christmas and discovers the truth is much more wonderful than they could ever have imagined.

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I have read many books by Terry Overton, but nothing like this. Oddball Ornaments is actually geared toward Middle School students. I wanted to read it because of the theme of the book, the true meaning of Christmas.

The Ornaments know that is almost the time of the year that they are bought down from Storage to be displayed for the Christmas Season. They know as soon as they smell Turkey cooking they will come down. The Ornaments are worried that they might not be put on the tree this year when Grandma arrives with a new box of Ornaments. The Ornaments realize that Grandma is sad and want to figure out the reason for her sadness and also what Box Day is all about. The Nutcracker Ornaments reach out to the Angel Ornament and Angel Ornament reveals the truth and the Ornaments are all amazed at the WONDERFUL News of the meaning of Christmas.

I really enjoyed this book and how the story of Christmas was told through the Ornaments. The Ornaments learned about Jesus and how much they loved learning the True Meaning of Christmas. The author does a GREAT job of explaining Christmas to the young ones through this fun book. My boys are now teenagers and I truly wish this book was around when they were younger. I highly recommend this book to Families of young children as a teaching tool and Family Christmas Tradition reading. FUN BOOK!

Terry Overton is a retired university professor of educational and school psychology. She has an Ed.D. in Special Education and a Ph.D. in Psychology. Her professional experience includes teaching public school, teaching at the university level, and being a college dean. She has two children and six grandchildren. Her writing and publication experiences include textbook and journal articles in the fields of special education and school psychology. She seeks to answer God’s call to share the good news and grow the church by writing Christian books and devotionals. Her book Both Sides of the Border is a Firebird Book Award winner in the categories of Cross-Genre, Socio-Political Fiction, and Women’s Fiction. Both Sides of the Border also won the American Writing Awards in the Multicultural Fiction category, Social Change category, and a finalist for the Women’s Fiction category. Her book, America of We the People was awarded the Firebird Book Award for Socio-Political and Political categories. She and her husband live in the southern tip of Texas where they enjoy semi-tropical weather and spending time with their friends and family.

More from Terry

Oddball Ornaments: The Story of Christmas was written one late fall while I looked at my own Christmas tree. I wondered, “If the ornaments could talk, what would they say? Would they even know why they were hung on the tree?” And that was how the book began. I played Christmas music and imagined a cast of characters like toys in Toy Story but ornaments and humans. It was such fun to write. I ran a few things by my regional experts (grand Angels) and they approved. It always means so much more when family are involved in my writing projects.

Not long after the book was out, the sequel was completed, and it will be released late summer 2022. “Oddball Ornaments: The Story of Forgiveness.”

I hope you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it!