Decorate the Tree

by Amanda Jane Jones

Overview

Blink your eyes and twinkle your fingers to help decorate the tree in this stylish picture book from the award-winning Kinfolk founding art director, Amanda Jane Jones.

Hooray! It’s time to decorate the tree! Can you help? Clap to turn on the lights. Twinkle your fingers to add some ornaments. Shake to add some more. (But not too hard; you don’t want to break one!)
 
This full-color picture book allows little helpers to trim the tree again and again, all season long.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798887071503
Publisher:	Abrams
Publication date:	09/05/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
File size:	8 MB
Age Range:	3 - 5 Years

About the Author

Amanda Jane Jones is an award-winning graphic designer and illustrator and mother of three. Decorate the Tree is her first book with Cameron Kids. She lives in Provo, Utah.

Editorial Reviews

08/28/2023

Jones brightly invites readers to trim a tree in this interactive holiday book. A friendly narrator encourages readers to “tap,” “clap,” “blink,” “knock,” and more to decorate layered green triangles that represent a tree. Appraising the conifer—festooned with ball ornaments, lights, and garland—the speaker proposes, “I think we need candy canes. Shout ‘JINGLE BELLS!’ in three, two, one...,” and a page turn reveals the sugary payoff. When the tree, standing crisply against a plain white backdrop, is at last fully covered in simple and shapely decor, a final nighttime display makes for an ideal cue to “snuggle in tight”—assuming readers can be kept from starting the process all over again. For fans of participatory reading, this is an inviting Christmas offering. Ages 3–5. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"With the clapping, singing, tapping, and shaking children will be doing as this story is told, it’s a sure hit for the Christmas holidays for both readers and the audience."—School Library Journal

"This book becomes a safe space where young children can share the fun of decorating a Christmas tree."—Booklist

From the Publisher

"This book becomes a safe space where young children can share the fun of decorating a Christmas tree."

Booklist

08/11/2023

PreS-Gr 1—An interactive Christmas picture book. The tree first appears bare, with basic triangle and rectangle shapes. But as readers are prompted to do a variety of activities before the turn of every page, colors and decorations are added to the tree. After the last decoration, a star, is put on the tree, readers need to "turn out the lights" in the book and say good night. Jones adds narration that enhances the interactions in this story, including asking questions, making observations about what readers did, and providing compliments as the garland and ornaments are added. When an ornament breaks, Jones deals with it in an easygoing manner and uses a fun clean-up method. VERDICT This is for children who enjoy books like Press Here by Hervé Tullet. With the clapping, singing, tapping, and shaking children will be doing as this story is told, it's a sure hit for the Christmas holidays for both readers and the audience.—Tanya Boudreau

School Library Journal

2023-09-07
An interactive book inviting readers to trim the Christmas tree with a tap, clap, and twinkle.

In this sparsely illustrated picture book, each page turn (with reader participation) adds another layer of decorations to the Christmas tree. Tapping the tree adds the lights, for example, while clapping turns them on, and blinking causes garland to appear. Readers will also blow away a broken ornament, and, of course, tap to place the star on top. The most magical moment happens when readers “turn out the lights” to see the fully glowing tree against a dark background. The directions in this book are simple enough for even young toddlers to follow or be guided through with minimal assistance. The pace of clapping and tapping is an added layer of engagement that keeps pages turning. Bare though the pages may be, they certainly allow readers to easily notice the addition of each new piece of decor and enable them to focus on the actions and movements. All the action words appear in italics, the last of which is “snuggle,” a loving and simple way for caregivers to bring their little ones in close. Sure to be a repeat read-aloud toddler favorite for the Christmas holiday season.

Simple and effective. (Picture book. 1-3)

Kirkus Reviews