LITTLE TREE

A brief, poignant poem is expanded by the illustrator into a picture book about two small city children who take home a tiny tree and decorate it for Christmas. ""little tree. . .you are so little/you are more like a flower. . .i will kiss your cool bark/and hug you safe and tight. . .only don't be afraid. . .the spangles that sleep all the year in a dark box/dreaming of being taken out and allowed to shine. . .I'll give them all to you to hold. . .and there won't be a single place dark or unhappy. . ."" A boy and his sister carry the modest tree to their tenement house and decorate it together as the boy comforts the tree with the prospect of Christmas glory. The delicate joy of the poem is well matched by Ray's softly drawn illustrations, gleaming with gold, gentle reds, and wintry blues, greens and earth tones, the children glowing with affection for the season. A pleasantly fresh look at an old tradition, this might be paired with Andersen's ""Fir Tree"" in a holiday program.