Like everyone in Doursville, Timken gets to choose his own cornello and begin learning to play it when he turns eight. Unlike everyone in Doursville, however, Timken can’t seem to play the right music. He quickly earns himself two Improvement Required Citations for not being able to play the Doursville Anthem properly. As a result, Timken must take lessons from the dour Grand Master, even though the music he’s forced to play sounds terrible to his ears. Then one day Timken meets someone who teaches him about another type of music…
Timken’s Christmas is a cute allegory by Michael Kimball that reminded me of Max Lucado’s stories about the Wemmicks or the VeggieTales’ movie A Snoodle’s Tale. I think everyone can identify with Timken’s feelings of being forced to learn something he doesn’t want to learn—and yearning for something more.
The story ends at Christmas, as Timken learns what Christmas is really about (for no one in Doursville celebrates Christmas) and receives a special Christmas surprise. This story is a beautiful reminder to slow down during the holiday season and appreciating the music that God gives to each of us. I enjoyed learning, along with Timken, that each of us has a part in God’s orchestra.
One thing I wanted with this story was pictures. Timken’s End is about 30 pages—a quick read for me or a good read for a middle schooler. I think the allegory would lend itself well to some cute pictures of Doursville and the Snobbits and the cornello.
More about Michael Kimball
Michael Kimball is the author of several ebooks, including his latest novel Portals, and blogs at Longing’s End with his wife Sheila (who is also a writer). Their books are available in ebook format from their website and some are available in print from Amazon. They met on a Christian dating website and eloped 47 days later. They’ve been married two and a half years now and run a copywriting/consulting business together.
If you enjoy reading allegories or parables, you may also enjoy:
I received this book for review from the author; all opinions expressed are my own.
2 Comments
Sounds like an interesting book for younger readers. Thank you so much for sharing with Cozy Reading Spot!
Marissa
This would be a great book for tweens to read on their own. I also might read it to Sunshine (almost 6) as I think she’d enjoy the story too. 🙂 Thanks for hosting the Cozy Reading Spot!