“The Christmas Tugboat” by George Matteson and Adele Ursone tells the a tale from the perspective of a girl who travels with her family on their tugboat to bring the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree to New York City. I liked this book because the lyrical language and descriptive paintings make the story easy to conceptualize as reality, which is important to children practicing reading comprehension. An example of the language I enjoy is from page 12: “As we steer around the tip of Manhattan and head north, up the Hudson River, the sun comes up, winking in and off between the skyscrapers as we pass. I press my nose against the pilothouse window, feeling the sun’s warmth through the glass.” My favorite illustration is on page 21 and captures the sunrise as the tugboat pulls the Christmas tree behind it. The beautiful shadows and coloring creates a realistic scene in which you can almost feel yourself there. This book reinforces the importance of family values and traditions as well as educates children on a very realistic process that happens every December in Manhattan. ( )

Although the subject of the glorious Christmas tree which appears every year at Rockefeller Plaza in central Manhattan has been explored before in the pages of the picture-book - see Julie Salamon's The Christmas Tree for the story of one individual tree that was destined to fill this role, or last year's The Carpenter's Gift: A Christmas Tale about the Rockefeller Center Tree, which offers a fictional account of the very beginning of the tradition - this is the first full-length story I have encountered that focuses on the process of getting the tree from its upstate starting point to New York Harbor. Opening early one morning, as a young girl gets up before the dawn and accompanies her father and mother to the Brooklyn pier where they all embark on a voyage up the Hudson River, The Christmas Tugboat chronicles one family's two-day journey to fetch the tree from Stony Point and return with it to the city.

Based upon a true-life incident from the lives of co-authors (and husband-and-wife team) George Matteson and Adele Ursone, this is an engaging story of family and of holiday traditions. It connects young readers, in a concrete and non-sentimental way, with the story behind the story, and with the hard work that is necessary in order to create the magic of that big, beautiful tree. The artwork, done in acrylics by James Ransome, brings the events being chronicled vividly to life, perfectly capturing the city and country landscapes, and the beauty of the starry sky, as the girl and her father steer the tugboat together. Recommended to young readers who have enjoyed the tree at Rockefeller Plaza, and who have wondered (or not) how such an arboreal giant found its way to the crowded city. ( )

Attractive and appealing holiday story. ( )