SCROOGE #WORSTGIFTEVER

A Christmas Carol, the classic holiday story of Ebenezer Scrooge’s transformation from miser to mensch, is recast for a new generation with this 21st-century version told entirely in texts, Facebook posts, and chat transcripts.

The cover sets the scene with Scrooge in his nightshirt, wearing the emoji face that suggests Munch’s The Scream. He is facing Marley’s ghost, who bears a one-eyed emoji face with his tongue sticking out. A Facebook post introduces the story with the news that Marley is dead, Scrooge inherits all, and the business will be open every day, including Christmas. Scrooge communicates with all the other characters, identified in a “Who’s Who” list with their own individual emojis. The Ghost of Christmas Past is represented by a floppy disc, the Ghost of Christmas Present is a wrapped Christmas present (ha ha, get it?), and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is the speak-no-evil–monkey emoji. Text-speak abbreviations are used throughout the story, with a handy list of “The 411 for Those Not in the Know” appended at the end. This abridged edition of Dickens’ story includes all the elements of the plot, distilled down to basics in the short, succinct manner required with texting. The humor is often a bit like finding buried treasure, seeing connections between the characters and emojis in texts or discovering an incongruous action by Scrooge, such as blocking someone’s texts.

This inventive retelling is part of the OMG Classics series. OMG, indeed. English class may never be the same.