Eine süße kleine Weihnachtsgeschichte über eine Nonne, die mit einem Baum gemeinsam aufgewachsen ist und den Gärtner von Rockefeller-Center, der Jahr für Jahr den perfekten Weihnachtsbaum sucht. Freundschaft ist immer möglich, zwischen Mensch und Mensch, aber auch zwischen Mensch und Baum. ( )

This cute short story focuses on an unnamed narrator who is the chief gardner at Rockefeller Center. His primary job in the non-Christmas season is to search the countryside for the perfect tree to light up Rockefeller Center at Christmas. One day he happens to find the PERFECT tree in a wooded grove in New Jersey. Upon discovering that the tree is located on the premises of an old convent, he decides to visit the nuns to see if they would be willing to donate their tree to New York City. When he arrives at the convent, he meets an older nun named Sister Anthony who has forged an incredible bond with the tree ever since it was a sapling. The gardner and Sister Anthony become friends and she shares her story with him. First becoming an orphan, then how she ended up at the convent, how she came to be a nun, and how she came to forge this special and unbreakable bond with the Norwegian spruce she fondly calls Tree. Sister Anthony and Tree have been friends since she was a little girl so when she is approached about giving the tree to be used in New York City at Rockefeller Center, she turns down the request. The chief gardener of the Center befriends Sister Anthony and learns what is so special about Tree but also finds his life changed by the nun's stories in a way he had never expected. When Tree is threatened by a winter storm, Sister Anthony, by now an old woman, decides to give up her dearest friend, allowing him to become the most enjoyed and famous tree of all: the tree at Rockefeller Center in New York City. A charming story about friendship, nature and appreciating the beauty around us.

The Christmas Tree by Julie Salamon, illustrated by Jill Weber and re-published by Open Road Integrated Media this next Oct 4th in a new edition for the 20th anniversary is a book that you can't and you won't put down and it will be one of the best gifts for this next Christmas for sure.

It's so precious, tender, plenty of wonderful humanity and good feelings.
A little big story able to warm the heart of millions of people in the world.

The book is narrated in first person by the manager of the Rockefeller Center of NYC deputed at the choice of the Christmas Tree and by Sister Anthony...

Everything started a lot of time ago when a little baby called Anna lost all her family and was sent in an orphanage. Later some nuns agreed to give her hospitality, because the toddler very nice and a person of good heart. Brush Creek opened the arms at this little kid. Anna became diffident because she had met along her way (at the orphanage) a lot of bad companions.

Anna started to make friendship not with some humans after all but with a tree, that she will call Tree. This tree a Norwegian one will become her best friend and the symbol of her life and of her personal spiritual and physical growth. Tree and Sister Anthony will grow up together, year after year.

Will Sister Anthony agree to share with NY, the city where once she was born and with the rest of the world her beloved tree, that to her meant a lot, cutting the past and giving a new start at her life?

I cried a lot of times while I read this little, precious tale. It is moving.

I would suggest this book to all of you, because Christmas is not just a feast but a part of us and our life-style.
Christmas is not just on Dec 25th but everyday and everyday we should spread to the world our own light.

The cover is beauty but I would have chosen a different image, for create a more, genuine romantic idea to the reader about the story, with more colors.

I thank Netgalley for this book.


( )

The Christmas Tree by Julie Salamon, illustrated by Jill Weber and re-published by Open Road Integrated Media this next Oct 4th in a new edition for the 20th anniversary is a book that you can't and you won't put down and it will be one of the best gifts for this next Christmas for sure.

It's so precious, tender, plenty of wonderful humanity and good feelings.
A little big story able to warm the heart of millions of people in the world.

The book is narrated in first person by the manager of the Rockefeller Center of NYC deputed at the choice of the Christmas Tree and by Sister Anthony...

Everything started a lot of time ago when a little baby called Anna lost all her family and was sent in an orphanage. Later some nuns agreed to give her hospitality, because the toddler very nice and a person of good heart. Brush Creek opened the arms at this little kid. Anna became diffident because she had met along her way (at the orphanage) a lot of bad companions.

Anna started to make friendship not with some humans after all but with a tree, that she will call Tree. This tree a Norwegian one will become her best friend and the symbol of her life and of her personal spiritual and physical growth. Tree and Sister Anthony will grow up together, year after year.

Will Sister Anthony agree to share with NY, the city where once she was born and with the rest of the world her beloved tree, that to her meant a lot, cutting the past and giving a new start at her life?

I cried a lot of times while I read this little, precious tale. It is moving.

I would suggest this book to all of you, because Christmas is not just a feast but a part of us and our life-style.
Christmas is not just on Dec 25th but everyday and everyday we should spread to the world our own light.

The cover is beauty but I would have chosen a different image, for create a more, genuine romantic idea to the reader about the story, with more colors.

I thank Netgalley for this book.


( )

Every year, the chief gardener at Rockefeller Center responsible for selecting the tree that will grace the Center for Christmas flies over New Jersey seeking the perfect tree. He doesn’t really enjoy this job but he is very good at it. He searches for a tree with ‘character, a spirit that outshines the ornaments and tinsel and lights’; one whose ‘beauty comes from the inside and not just the outside’. This year he spots what he thinks will be the perfect tree. When he drives out to the site, he discovers that it is on the grounds of a convent. He is told that one of the nuns, Sister Anthony who has spent most of her life at the convent, is the only one who can decide whether he can take the tree. To her it is not just a tree; it is Tree. She planted it when she was a lonely little girl, an orphan, and it has been her best friend, her solace, and the depository of all her secrets ever since. She now tells stories to children under the tree and, although, she will not part with Tree, she invites the narrator to come and sit with them and hear about her shared life with Tree. Over the years, the pair develops a close relationship as her story helps him see the beauty of the season. Eventually, after a storm that damages many of the trees although not Tree, she realizes that it has lived a very long life for a Norwegian spruce and she relinquishes it so that it can provide joy to others as it has to her.

The Christmas Tree by author Julie Salamon was originally released in 1996 and is being reissued this year with some rather lovely illustrations by Jill Weber. It is a fable about finding beauty all around us if we would just stop and look and is based on a true story about a group of nuns who donated a tree to the Rockefeller Center in 1995. It is a sweet tale, at times a bit too sweet for my taste. Still, it is fairly short read and, I suspect, given its lasting appeal, that most readers will enjoy its uplifting message at this hectic time of year.

Thanks to Netgalley and Open Road for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review ( )