Sunday, December 18, 2016

The Christmas Eve Tree

The Christmas Eve Tree. Delia Huddy. Illustrated by Emily Sutton. 2016. 40 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: A forest of Christmas trees stretching over the hills. That's where the story begins. There the little fir tree was planted, but planted carelessly, so that when the wind blew strong it fell sideways onto its neighbor and had no chance to grow.

Premise/plot: This is the story of a 'crooked' and 'unwanted' Christmas tree. He is wanted. He is even needed by a young boy, a homeless boy, who plants the tree in a cardboard box, and prepares another box to be his bed for the night. Soon the tree and the boy are bringing hope and joy to a lot of people as both remind people of what the season is all about.

My thoughts: I liked this one. I did. I do think it is probably for older children--as opposed to preschoolers. It is definitely on the text-heavy side. But. The story is lovely and hope-filled. This is exactly the kind of story that would be an animated short.

Text: 4 out of 5
Illustrations: 4 out of 5
Total: 8 out of 10
© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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