The Halloween Tree

September 2, 2019
On a Christmas tree farm, a curmudgeonly needleless sapling grumbles that it dreads being uprooted: “I don’t like lights, I don’t like decorations, and I don’t like people.” After a housing development replaces the farm, the gnarled tree ends up on a family’s lawn, where neighborhood kids turn its knotty branches into a pirate ship, a hideout, a spaceship, and a dragon. Martinez fills this 8×8 with vivid digital illustrations suggestive of animated cartoons, cleverly tweaking the tree’s facial expressions to morph from grumpy (amid Christmas tree buyers) to tolerant (serving as the kids’ playground) to forlorn (when winter keeps the children indoors) to chagrin (when the parents threaten to cut it down) to satisfied—if somewhat skeptical—when the youngsters decorate it for Halloween and exclaim, “Trick or tree!” A slight yet diverting holiday offering. Ages 3–7.

Music and sound effects heighten the atmosphere of each phase of a grouchy tree's life in this Halloween holiday audiobook. Narrator Nick Podehl's voice is friendly and comforting while delightfully playing up the grouch factor of the curmudgeonly tree on a tree farm who does not want to be a sappy Christmas tree. After the farm is incorporated into a housing development, the gnarled, twisted tree ends up on a family's lawn, where neighborhood kids pretend it's a pirate ship, a spaceship, and a dragon, each depicted with sound effects. Podehl also furnishes different voices for cheerful human and tree companions that provide humorous contrast to the grumpy tree. Upbeat music adds to the satisfaction of the tree's happy ending as a festive Halloween tree. S.C. � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine