Brown, Margaret Wise. The little fir tree. Illustrated by LaMarche, Jim. HarperCollins Publishers. 2005. ISBN 0060281898. $15.99. 32 pp. Reviewer: Gabi Kupitz Reading Level: Primary Rating: Outstanding Genre: Christmas stories; Subject: Christmas--Juvenile fiction; Fathers--Juvenile fiction; Christmas trees--Juvenile fiction; Books--Reviews; A lonely little seven year-old fir tree enjoys a new life when a man comes, just before winter's hard frost, and digs up the tree. He transports the tree to his home where his disabled little boy awaits Christmas. In the spring, the tree is returned to the forest where it grows through the seasons. When the snow begins to fall the next year, the man again comes to the forest and digs up the tree. Again, the tree is decorated for Christmas. In the spring, the man returns the tree to the forest. The tree looks forward to this ritual, but when the snow falls in the third winter, the man doesn't come. The tree feels very small in a vast empty field. But then, one day, the little fir tree hears singing. As the music grows louder the little fir tree is overjoyed when the first caroler across the snow is the little boy--now walking--in whose home the tree has had a place for several winters. This winter though, the little fir tree is not dug up, but is decorated with treats for the birds and is serenaded by the little boy and his family and friends. New illustrations by LaMarche update this treasure of a Christmas story.
