Review by Booklist Review
For one pine tree, being close to trains, their speed, their click-clacking wheels, their powerful engines, is the best part about living on her tree farm. But one day, a boy and his father choose her as their Christmas tree (they dig her up rather than cutting her down). Though her new indoor place initially feels strange, dark, cramped, soon she finds delight there, too, in being decorated and in the train set that circles around her. Then the holiday's over and it's time to be replanted outdoors but to a welcome, familiar spot where she can again be visited by the trains and, now, her new friend. Lively, descriptive text, incorporating animated sound effects and eloquent touches, expressively relays the tree's experiences and emotions. The accompanying illustrations, in computer-enhanced colored pencil, carry that through, too, from the rural setting and natural elements to the sweet depiction of the family and star-topped tree, visible through a window. Here the tree and boy's unexpected connection and shared joy in trains makes for a charming holiday story.--Shelle Rosenfeld Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Horn Book Review
A little pine tree loves to watch trains go by from her spot on the edge of a Christmas tree farm. When a boy and his dad dig her up to take home, shes lonely and misses the trains. Then she wakes up on Christmas morning to find herself encircled by the tracks of a toy trainand the tree had never been happier. Better still, when Christmas is over, and the family replants her on their farm near train tracks, she now has the company not only of her beloved trains but also the little boy. The story is sweet without being saccharine, and the illustrations, in soft greens and bright reds, are homey and warm. martha v. Parravano (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A solitary pine tree on the outskirts of a tree farm enjoys her place near the tracks, where she can hear trains roar past.A little boy who loves trains as much as she does comes with his father to choose a Christmas tree. There's an instant connection between the boy and the personified (but not visibly anthropomorphized) tree, and she's the one he chooses to take home. Lest a child be horrified at the thought of the father cutting down the tree, the illustrations make clear that it's carefully dug up and roots swaddled in burlap for the trip. The boy is happy, but the tree, now trapped in the corner of a room, is sad that she can no longer hear the trains. When the boy sets up his new toy train around the tree, she's happy once again. Eventually, the boy and his father take her back to her favorite spot by the tracks and replant her. This beautifully designed and illustrated book conveys the emotional import of moments big and small through a visual rhythm that intersperses double-page spreads with smaller, more intimate scenes in soft ovals set against white space. The title page echoes the cover while framing the publication information within the tracks. Soft reds and greens enhance the Christmas theme, while onomatopoeic display type propels the action. The boy and his family present white.Reminiscent of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Fir-Tree," this story of friendship will warm children's hearts. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
