Illustrations by Pascal Campion
Publisher: Dial Books
Release Date: October 1, 2014
Among the grand firs and pines at the Christmas tree lot, sits a little hunched tree that is missing some branches. Nevertheless, the little tree is filled with Christmas spirit and waits in great anticipation for his turn to be picked. As the weeks go by though, no one picks the little tree. No families want him. Some even make fun of him. By Christmas Eve he is the last tree in the lot. That is when a special visitor wearing a red and white outfit shows up to give the little tree a home for Christmas.
In the vein of The Tale of Three Trees, this anthropomorphized little tree story is full of heart. I may have teared up a little when that little tree was sitting there all alone in the lot after being rejected over and over. The sweetness of the ending, the idea that Santa takes home the little trees that are left over brought a tear to my eye. As I sometimes do with these books though, I thought I would run it through a child test. (aka read it to my nephews) I could not, for the life of me, get them to actually sit through this book. I started it over twice, we abandoned it, and then I tried to read it to them once with with the response being, "We don't want to read that one." Either my nephews aren't in the holiday spirit yet or something about it didn't appeal to them, so perhaps this one is a adults-will-like-it-more-than-kids book. If that is the case then I can at least guarantee that the parents will enjoy reading it.
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