by Moe Zilla

Created on: March 03, 2010

"A Possible Tree" offers a glimpse into the lives of animals, but it ends with a forest Christmas surprise. It depicts the struggles of the animals hiding from the humans - a raccoon, an owl, and a squirrel, two rabbits, and a fox. Winter is coming, and each animal seeks a tree that can keep them warm and make them feel safe. But they all seem to come to life in the story by Josephine Haskell Aldridge - especially with the realistic animal illustrations contributed by Daniel San Souci.

Souci teaches children's book illustration at the University of California in Berkeley - so he knows how to add personality to his drawings while keeping them life-like. He tucks the raccoon in the corner of a larger picture, while showing its downward view of the forest's floor (and a farmer departing with a gun). And when a blue jay is splashed with a bucket of water, its flapping wings and open beak clearly signal that it's agitated!

Souci's drawings are a real treasure, showing a real fondness for the animals, but also for the forest that shelters them.  In the first drawing, the farmer's walking from a house that's surrounded by the brilliant yellow of autumn trees. He walks under a pine-tree canopy of rich green leaves, and beyond them are bright stars over a horizon of aqua blue mountains.  And as the raccoon looks down from the tree, Souci includes the orange and yellow leaves that cover the forest's floor.

"The fir tree tightened the circle of its bough around him and made a soothing shh shhhh shhhh sound...."

The author lives in a 200-year-old farmhouse in Maine, according to the book's jacket, and she's obviously got a love for animals. The story devotes two pages to describing the swaying spruce trees, but then rambles from the story of one animal to another. A squirrel flees the slingshot of the farmer's young son. The farmer's hands accidentally bump a red fox with their pickup truck,
and scare it to the sanctuary of the raccoon's fir tree.

The story builds to a very special moment - showing the owl and the rabbits who would also hide in the same tree. Eventually snow covers the forest, and a layer of snow decorates the spruce's branches. "Here's a tree we DON'T want," two burly woodsmen decide, and the book closes when the neighborhood shares their discovery. They light a lantern on Christmas eve, and discover all the birds and animals nesting throughout the branches of the tree.

And then "Everyone laughed and called 'Merry Christmas!'..."

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