Throwback Thursday - Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree

About once a month or so, my neighbor and I go book shopping and to lunch. We visit several secondhand shops and go through their books looking for treasure. Last month during our expedition, she suggested I start this book blog. Because I love talking about books, I decided I liked her idea and Building Lifelong Readers was born. Yesterday during our excursion, I found a book that delighted me when I was a child.

Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree published in 1963 and written and illustrated by Robert Barry is a fun Christmas tree story told in rhyme, which makes it even more fun to read. The story begins with a great tree being cut and delivered to Mr. Willowby's house, but the tree is too tall, so the top is cut off and given to someone else. This happens a few times in the story until what is left is small enough to fit into a spool of thread and becomes the Christmas tree for a mouse family.

I found an original copy that looks like just as I remembered, colored in white, black, and shades of green.

The reprint of this book has added color; red, yellow, brown, and blue, which makes it even more fun. 

If you collect Christmas books, this is a fun book to share with children. The children can predict who will get the top of the tree each time it is cut smaller, and the ending is sweet. 

My neighbor wraps her Christmas collection in wrapping paper; they open and read a book a day as an advent calendar. 

Have you read this book? What did you think of it? Do you have a favorite Christmas storybook?