Pick a Pine Tree
This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share a commission.
Pick a Pine Tree: A festive read-aloud brimming with all the joy and excitement of Christmastime — beginning, of course, with picking out a tree!Part of the magic of the Christmas season stems from the traditions that families and friends take part in every year: hanging up stockings; putting lights in the windows;...
Pick a Pine Tree:
Part of the magic of the Christmas season stems from the traditions that families and friends take part in every year: hanging up stockings; putting lights in the windows; and, one of the most important of all, picking out and taking home the Christmas tree.
With style and warmth, debut author Patricia Toht evokes all the rituals of decorating the tree — digging out boxes jam-packed with ornaments and tree trimmings, stringing tinsel, and, at long last, turning on those twinkling lights.
Joyously drawn and rhythmically written, this celebration of family, friends, and the holiday season is as merry as the tradition it depicts.
A festive read-aloud brimming with all the joy and excitement of Christmastime — beginning, of course, with picking out a tree!
About the Author:
Patricia Toht is a children’s author, poet, middle school library associate, reader, and traveler. She once owned a children’s bookstore before turning her love of children’s books into a love of writing. For most of her life she has lived in the Chicago area, but was lucky to live in England for four years. Learn more about her here.
A Few Reviews:
“A family visits a pine tree lot to pick out the perfect tree. Rhyming, instructional text accompanies the family as they transport the tree, set it up, unpack decorations, and find friends to help decorate it. For example, on how to decorate the tree: “Stretch along some/twinkling lights,/a colored mix/or simply white…Start up top/or near the base;/wrap around/and tuck in place.” Finally, when the tree is crowned with a star, the tree skirt is laden with presents, and the lights are plugged in: “LOOK! It’s not a pine tree/anymore. It’s a…CHRISTMAS TREE!” Friends and family members gaze at it, awestruck, on a dazzling spread that requires a vertical orientation for added drama. The final scene is a view of the family’s house after nightfall, twinkling with starlight and strung lights, and a wish for a “Merry CHRISTMAS, one and all!” The pencil, chalk, paint, and digitally colored paintings are brimming with holiday cheer and warmth. VERDICT Share with little ones prior to decorating a tree or as secular Christmas fare for holiday story times.” —Shanna Kim, Los Angeles Public Library
“The short, rhyming text has a bouncy, appealing tone…Delightful mixed-media illustrations use a flattened perspective, simple shapes, and glowing, light-filled backgrounds for a fresh take on the tree-decorating tradition. The illustrations are all in double-page-spread format with compositions that will work well for reading to a group or with just one child in a lap. Pick this delightful story for a Christmas storytime, for library collections, or for family reading around the Christmas tree. “—Kirkus Reviews
“Holiday spirit crackles in Toht’s warm, step-by-step recounting of how humble stately pines transform into shimmering Christmas trees…Jarvis’s chalk and pencil texturing adds to the sense of a casual, homey holiday filled with traditions many families will recognize.” —Publishers Weekly
“The pencil, chalk, paint, and digitally colored paintings are brimming with holiday cheer and warmth. Share with little ones prior to decorating a tree or as secular Christmas fare for holiday storytimes.” —School Library Journal
“Toht’s rhyming text is greatly illuminated by Jarvis’s mixed-media illustrations, which imbue each step in the process with holiday warmth and capably capture that satisfying, twinkling glow of Christmas decorations.” —The Horn Book
