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.

Memory Magic: The Broken Ornament by Tony DiTerlizzi

Jack wanted this Christmas to be the best Christmas ever.

"I want MORE ornaments!

Let's get a bigger tree!"

To Jack, more is better, and truth to tell, a bigger tree mainly means more room for Santa to leave presents for him underneath it.

Mom and Dad chuckle and their holiday decor outdoes any previous Christmas, but Jack still wants more. He finds one dusty ornament box in the closet and hurries to add one more to his tree.

"Not that one!" Jack's mother gasps.

But Jack yanks the old ornament from the box and drops it. It breaks on the floor. A glance at his mom shows her beginning to weep softly.

"We''ll get another one," he says.

"We can't!" his mother says softly.

And as Jack glances at the pieces of the ornament, he sees a tiny fairy appearing from the shards. She says her name is Tinsel and asks Jack for his Christmas wish.

"The best Christmas ever," he replies.

And Tinsel summons up a magical display of Christmas plenty--glittering trees, prancing reindeer, marching elves, and snowmen tossing snowballs. It's everything that says Christmas to Jack. But then Jack asks Tinsel if she can restore his mom's ornament.

"No can do!" Tinsel tells him.

But the fairy can summon up a vision for Jack--a vision of his mother's grandmother giving his mom her precious ornament from her own childhood Christmases past. Suddenly Jack understands. Christmas isn't about more. It's about the love and beloved memories that we bring to it. And now he knows just what to do.

And it is the best Christmas ever, one to remember forever, in Tony DiTerlizzi's magical Christmas tale, The Broken Ornament (Simon and Schuster, 2018). Author DiTerlizzi, creator of the quaint and beloved Spiderwick Chronicles series and the Caldecott-winning book, The Spider and the Fly, touches the heart with her soft and lovely illustrations and theme of beloved family traditions as part of the real magic of Christmas. Says Publishers Weekly, "The author delivers a sound, easily relatable lesson about the perils of greed—and the essence of Christmas—as Jack devises a way to make amends in the story’s heartwarming finale."

Tree Time! Dream Snow by Eric Carle

A rotund farmer does his evening chores, feeding his five farm animals--Horse, Cow, Sheep, Pig, and Rooster--and heading gratefully back to his cottage. There he spreads some honey on bread, and with a cup of peppermint tea, plops heavily into his favorite chair.

Soon he's resting in front of the fire!

"HEAVENS!" HE SAID. "IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS AND IT HASN'T SNOWED YET!"

Soon he's dozing and dreaming of snow.

In his dream he imagines his farm animals, called One, Two, Three, Four, and Five, sleeping in the snow-blanketed shed.

Suddenly, the farmer wakes and sees the snow outside.

"OH, ME! OH, MY! I ALMOST FORGOT!"

He suits up for an expedition outside--boots, fur lined cap, red coat and green gloves, and tossing a sack over his shoulders, he soldiers through the snow to the barn, where he unpacks his sack and assembles--a small Christmas tree with sparkling lights, colored balls and tinsel, under which he places gifts for One, Two, Three, Four, and Five.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

In what may be his only Christmas story, Eric Carle's Dream Snow (Philomel Books, 2015) is out in a revised new edition as a board book. The acetate overlays of nightfall and falling snow in the original full-sized picture book are replaced here with sturdy flaps for younger fingers which open to reveal the animals sleeping in their stalls and what is hidden inside the farmer's pack. Although the white-whiskered farmer bears a striking resemblance to St. Nick, there's no hint of a sleigh trip ahead, just the simple gifts of the holiday. This one is perfect for preschoolers to share during Yuletide.

Don't Forget the Lights! Little Blue Truck's Christmas by Alice Schertle

Christmastide is near, and Blue Truck is loaded with cheer!

Well, he will be when he fills his load bed with Christmas greenery. And what does Little Blue Truck do as Christmas draws nearer?

FIVE TREES READY
TO TAKE A RIDE.
HOW MANY TREES
WILL FIT INSIDE?

Stopping by Toad's Trees, Blue counts them up as Toad loads them up, and one by one Little Brown counts them down as he delivers them to his best friends.

Who needs a tree? Goose honks for Blue to stop and unload tree #5. It's a big one, and Goose needs it as her ten goslings, in festive red hats, climb up to perch on its branches.

At her barn with its jolly colored fringe of lights, Cow moos for the tallest tree, and now Blue has only three.

As befits her size, Pig orders up a fat one, and Goat selects a short one to hoist high to her three-storied stalls for her three kids. Now Little Blue Truck has only one evergreen left in the load bed.

Who will get the very last tree?

"BEEP! BEEP, BEEP!
THIS ONE'S FOR ME!"

And kids' eyes will shine as with the last page turn, Little Blue Truck's tree comes to life with its own blinking, twinkling lights for Blue and Toad to enjoy. In her just-published Little Blue Truck's Christmas (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014) veteran holiday storyteller Alice Schertle's scintillatingly simple verses and illustrator Jill McElmurray's bedecked anthropomorphic little truck and seasonal scenes provide the perfect kickoff to the holiday fun, especially when it's time for trimming the tree. Of course, author and artist take the opportunity to provide a bit of preschool counting practice in the process. The publisher even kindly provides instructions for replacing the batteries for Little Blue's lights so that they may sparkle for many a season.

Schertle and McElmurry's other terrific Little Blue Truck books are the best-selling Little Blue Truck Board Book and Little Blue Truck Leads the Way board book (see reviews here).