...the nicest present of all (The Silver Christmas Tree - Pat Hutchins)

Member Name: helican

Product:	The Silver Christmas Tree - Pat Hutchins
Date:	30/05/09 (9 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: distinctive illustrations & a gentle story

Disadvantages: none

Squirrel decorates his tree for Christmas & is delighted when a star shines at the top of it - but then morning comes & it's disappeared! He sees his friends with parcels & thinks they may have hidden it, but when they give him the parcels on Christmas Day he's sad to find they contain presents & not his star. Luckily things all turn out fine in the end & they all have a lovely Christmas.

This is unmistakeably a Pat Hutchins creation, with her heavily decorated animals that are so stylized as to be almost expressionless. For me this makes the book seem much older than it is, & Squirrel's decorating the tree with pine cones & strings of polished nuts adds to the old-fashioned feel.

It's a typical Hutchins storyline too: no wild action but a gentle story with lots of repetition. I find it a bit gloomy, with poor old squirrel's disappointment about the star that even a pile of Cristmas presents can't shake. My daughter was fascinated with this book when she was much younger though: I think the repetition in the story is helpful to little children, although maybe she just liked the gloominess! And she was never put off by the artwork - I've always thought it would appeal more to adults, but that shows what I know as she's always been entranced by it. Perhaps it's the ending she likes because it's an exremely happy one & the last page (I won't spoil it) is absolutely dazzling - really beautiful.

So all in all I would say this is a sweet, low-key story with a lovely ending, with striking, formal illustrations which appeal to all ages.

Summary: a charming & decorative Christmas story