Booklist (Vol. 88, No. 2 (September 15, 1991))
Ages 4-8. A warm family story extends the spirit of Christmas to the dark, quiet woods and the creatures that live there. On the night before Christmas, a boy, his little sister, and their parents always drive in their father's pickup from their house with its tree and bright holiday lights to the "nice forgotten place where our town ends." Then they walk in the moonlight to their special tree. They find that it's grown, just as they have. They decorate it with all kinds of natural foods and sing carols as they huddle in the cold. Then they pack up and drive home squashed together in the front of the truck. Rand's double-spread watercolor paintings capture the family intimacy in the shadowy, secret wilderness. Together they glimpse a deer, then they hear an owl (a dramatic painting shifts perspective to show a huge owl looking down from a branch at the small family far below). There is mystery all around, and they are part of it. The next day in the midst of the boisterous human festivities, the boy imagines the wilderness animals at the tree, and the final picture shows bears and raccoons, doves and deer, feasting together.
Night Tree is a wonderful way to pause for just a moment during this hectic time of year to consider all the many different ways there are to spread kindness and joy through family traditions. When I read this book to second graders, I always try to add a little humor by telling them about myown family traditions from when I was a child. This opens up an avalanche of text to self comments. After we have finished sharing I like to encourage the children to imagine themselves out in the middle of Luke's forest and then we try to think of all the different senses you might use. I use a graphic organizer found at TPT on the smart board as we look for different sense experiences in the book. I am often surprised at how many different things they can pull from the text.
by Margo Irving
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