Max Fernsby and the Infinite Toys

by Gerry Swallow, Marta Kissi (Illustrator), Peter Gaulke

Overview

The Naughty List meets Elf in Max Fernsby and the Infinite Toys, a charming, hilarious, illustrated middle grade Christmas tale about three friends who join forces with the two wayward elves to save the holidays!

Max Fernsby seems like your typical 10-year-old kid, but when a red bag­ literally falls on his head from the sky, Max finds he suddenly has the power to produce any toy in the world!

But what Max doesn’t realize is that the red bag only wound up in his hands because two of Santa’s most troublesome elves decided to take Santa’s sleigh for a joy ride. The bag fell out along the way, and if they don’t get it back to the North Pole soon, Christmas itself may be in jeopardy. Not to mention a greedy businessman has eyes on the bag and wants to steal it for himself!

It’s a race against time to save Christmas in this hilarious, illustrated, middle grade adventure from the acclaimed screenwriting duo of Peter Gaulke and Gerry Swallow.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063214750
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	09/19/2023
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Gerry Swallow began his career in Seattle as a stand-up comic before moving to Los Angeles. This led to numerous television appearances including several shots on NBC’s Tonight Show. He eventually turned his attention to screenwriting and has written everything from popular comedies to children’s animation, including the blockbuster hit, Ice Age: The Meltdown.

Marta Kissi is a London-based illustrator originally from Warsaw. She studied BA illustration & animation at Kingston University and MA communication art & design at the Royal College of Art. Her favorite part of being an illustrator is bringing stories to life by designing charming characters and the wonderful worlds they live in. She shares a studio in London with her husband, James, and their pet plant, Trevor.

Peter Gaulke began his writing career as stand-up comic in LA. He made the transition into television comedy writing for Married With Children and Saturday Night Live. Then he went on to write some movies, Black Knight, Say It Isn’t So for the Farrelly Brothers, and, with Gerry Swallow, the animated smash hit Ice Age: The Meltdown.

Editorial Reviews

08/28/2023

Two calamity-prone elves and three human friends team up to save Santa’s bag from an avaricious e-tailer in this madcap Christmas adventure from screenwriters Swallow and Gaulke. Lost out of Santa’s sleigh during an elfin pizza run, the famous sack lands on the head of 10-year-old Max Fernsby, who lives with foster parents following his mother’s death. Max—whose lean allowance recently saw him sledding on a rusty bedpan rather than a toboggan—quickly discovers that the bag magically supplies any toy he asks for, and begins to conjure more for sale, undercutting Rainforest.com’s prices in a neighborhood that just lost its last toy store. But Rainforest.com founder and CEO Steve Bozeman is watching Max closely after a sledding collision, and he soon plots to steal the sack, just as elves Eldor and Skhiff—recently demoted to fertilizer relocation engineers—work to retrieve the bag. Though the plotting is formulaic, nonstop action and toilet humor will find their audience in this double debut filled with “high jinks, shenanigans... tomfoolery... funny business... horseplay, and... buffoonery.” Occasional b&w cartoons from Kissi render most protagonists with pale skin. Ages 8–12. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Opening with a promise that readers have never heard a Christmas story quite like this one, Swallow and Gaulke certainly deliver in the unique zany shenanigans department.” — Kirkus Reviews

”Nonstop action and toilet humor will find their audience in this double debut filled with ‘high jinks, shenanigans... tomfoolery... funny business... horseplay, and... buffoonery.’” — Publishers Weekly

Fast-paced and laced perfectly with a little irreverent humor. Highly recommended. — School Library Journal

From the Publisher

10/27/2023

Gr 3–6—Eldor and Skhiff, two elves who are abject failures at the North Pole, are seemingly always in trouble. They kick up their antics a notch when they borrow Santa's sleigh one night and lose his famous red sack. Falling from the sleigh, the sack lands on the head of Max Fernsby, a foster kid with skinflint guardians who only want chores done and a check in their hands. However, Max and his two friends, Baxter and Leoni, make their own fun through numerous adventures. The only element missing in the story is, of course, a greedy toy maker. Enter Steve Bozeman, CEO of Rainforest.com, who finds fun in forcing small toy stores out of business. The antics of the elves, the action of Max and his friends, and the cruelty of Bozeman are revealed in alternating chapters, but all the seemingly unrelated story lines come together at the end where the narrator is also revealed. Constant action, comic situations, and sarcastic banter make for a fun ride all the way to the end of the story, where there's a great surprise for readers. VERDICT Fast-paced and laced perfectly with a little irreverent humor. Highly recommended.—Laura Fields Eason

School Library Journal

2023-08-12
A young boy comes into possession of a miraculous bag.

Two weeks before Christmas, the continued shenanigans of North Pole elves Eldor and Skhiff result in their being given the less-than-desirable job of “fertilizer relocation engineer” (shoveling reindeer poop). Meanwhile, a 10-year-old foster child named Max Fernsby takes an ill-fated, snowy bedpan ride (he and his friends couldn’t afford a toboggan)…and winds up careening into Steve Bozeman, the greedy CEO of Rainforest.com. Though the kids run off, they haven’t seen the last of Bozeman. When a hankering for pizza prompts Eldor to borrow Santa’s sleigh, an almost-collision sends Santa’s red bag falling through the sky onto Max’s head. The bag produces whatever toy he asks for, and he and his friends start a business to support themselves and provide presents to the neighborhood at much lower prices than Rainforest.com offers. The elves need to find that bag, especially before Bozeman gets his hands on it! Opening with a promise that readers have never heard a Christmas story quite like this one, Swallow and Gaulke certainly deliver in the unique zany shenanigans department. Despite a couple of missteps—a key beat of the climax happens abruptly offscreen, and the end has an odd twist—young readers looking for humor with a holiday twist will have fun here. Occasional illustrations depict the primary characters as light-skinned, though people of color appear, too.

General tomfoolery, affectionate and otherwise. (Fiction. 8-11)

Kirkus Reviews