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What a Christmas season it was! I was kept busy as I visited bookstores, baby stores, libraries and museums. I had a wonderful time with kids (and young-at-heart adults, too) as we:
• pretended to stomp through a forest, looking for a tree, • learned a hand rhyme about Santa popping from a chimney, • joined together for a lively reading of PICK A PINE TREE, and • decorated the silliest pine tree that kids had ever seen. (That is my son, Will, as the human Christmas tree. He was a gentleman and true sport, and I am so grateful for his help.) At most places I visited, the children decorated Christmas tree ornaments to add to their own trees. They also added their names to paper strips that were later linked together to make a giant PICK A PINE TREE paper chain. On Christmas Eve, I draped the paper chain around my own Christmas tree. Oh my, what a lovely sight! My heart, and my tree branches, were overflowing. I will never know another Christmas like my first Christmas with PICK A PINE TREE. 
 On Dec 2, the Guardian newspaper listed their "Best Books of 2017" and PICK A PINE TREE was one of four titles in the Ages 0-4 category! Here is what the Guardian had to say: "Anticipation builds throughout this rhyming, ritual account of choosing and bedecking a tree. Everyone in the blocky, soft-glowing images is beaming, from people to pets to plump Santa ornaments; by the end of the book, readers will be, too." Thank you, Guardian! Read the entire Guardian list HERE. |
Patricia Toht
Children's author and poet, middle school library associate, reader, traveler |
