Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree - Hardcover

Robert Barry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385327218 ISBN 13: 9780385327213

Publisher: Doubleday Books for Young Readers, 2000

A classic picture book celebrating all the joy a Christmas tree can bring.

Christmas is here and Mr. Willowby's tree has arrived. There's just one big problem: The tree is too tall for his parlor. He cuts off the top so it will fit, and soon the top of that tree is passed along again and again to bring holiday cheer to all the animals in the forest.

Kids will love watching the tree move from home to home, and families will appreciate the subtle message of conservation and recycling, as the tree top spreads joy to so many of the forest dwellers. 

This heartwarming story is the perfect way to start your yuletide season, and a warm addition to your family’s festive holiday traditions.

Review:

Mr. Willowby, the unwitting hero of this Christmas classic, looks quite a bit like the little mustachioed mascot from Monopoly. But as befits a Yuletide tale, this diminutive millionaire turns out to be a good bit more generous.

The Christmas tree in question shows up at Mr. Willowby's home by special order, aboard a big pink truck: "Full and fresh and glistening green--The biggest tree he had ever seen." But it's just a little too big, so he asks his butler, Baxter, to trim off the top few feet that brush up against the parlor ceiling. Baxter realizes that this snipped-off top would make a perfect little tree for "Miss Adelaide, Mr. Willowby's upstairs maid." But she, too, must clip off the top of her tree... which then ends up with Timm, the gardener. Timm's trimming goes on to Barnaby Bear, the tippy-top of Barnaby's tree ends up with Frisky Fox and family, and then Benjamin Rabbit finds the top few inches that Mrs. Fox snipped off. And so it goes, until soon the whole countryside learns that it's simply "grand to have a tree--Exactly like Mr. Willowby."

There's many a lesson to be taken from this tale, about recycling and supply-side economics just for starters. But the cheerful illustrations of Robert Barry ensure that you'll have fun just watching as the ever-tinier tree gets passed on to ever-tinier families. (Ages 5 to 8) --Paul Hughes

From the Publisher:

Mr. Willowby's Christmas tree

Came by special delivery.

Full and fresh and glistening green--

The biggest tree he had ever seen.

That was the trouble. Mr. Willowby's Christmas tree was so tall, it couldn't stand up straight in his parlor. Mr. Willowby asked his butler to chop off the top of the tree. What happens to the treetop? Where will it be for Christmas?