Bah, Humbug! The Halloween Tree by Susan Montanari

Christmas is coming, and the little evergreens on the tree lot are all a-twitter, dreaming of twinkling lights, tinsel, and bright stars on their tops and trying to hold their little trunks as straight as they can.

All but one of them, that is.

One little tree is clearly the Grinch of the bunch.

"I DON'T WANT TO BE A CHRISTMAS TREE.

I DON'T LIKE LIGHTS.

I DON'T LIKE DECORATIONS, AND I DON'T LIKE PEOPLE."

A curmudgeonly Christmas tree? How can that be? He's such a malcontent that he sheds his needles constantly and grows more crooked every day. It's no surprise that when the last late tree shoppers pick over the remaining trees on Christmas Eve, he's the last one left.

As time passes, the town moves closer and closer. The tree lot is sold, and soon the Scrooge-y tree finds himself in the middle of a new subdivision. The tree is not happy with his new neighbors.

"I DON'T LIKE PEOPLE!" he grumbled.

The tree has grown taller, but more twisted and gnarly. Still, the neighborhood children find its knotty trunk easy to climb and soon it becomes one of their favorite places to play.

"IT'S A PIRATE SHIP! called Sarah.

And so it is. Sometimes the tree is their fort, and sometimes it's a space ship or even a dreadful dragon!

And when the weather grows colder, the grumpy tree discovers that he's lonely alone, without the children playing on his limbs. And when their dad complains about the spooky-looking tree and threatens to cut it down, the kids have other ideas.

"I KNOW WHAT TO DO! said Sam

And soon the twisted tree is decorated with wispy spider webs, little Jack o' lantern lights, a part-time black cat, and little hanging spiders. The neighbors admire it, and the cranky tree gets a new name--

THE TRICK-OR-TREE!

In a humorous turn-the-tables takeoff on Hans Christian Andersen's classic The Little Fir Tree,  author Susan Montanari's and artist Teresa Martinez's latest The Halloween Tree (Sourcebooks/Jabberwocky, 2019), shows that, however unsightly, there's a time and place for every tree. Kids will love this tale of a creatively re-purposed tree, and may even have some Halloween fun decorating their own least lovely tree.