The Berenstain Bears' Christmas Tree Book

I couldn't stand that the summary gave away everything that happened. Why would they tell the ending of the story before anyone has even started reading? Finding out that they realize their tree house is the perfect tree and that they help others completely gave everything away. 

It was cool how Dr. Seuss was Stan and Jan's editor when they first started out writing. 

The pages were really colorful and had quite a lot of detail. The bears' feet looked weird though. They had bony heels, and the front curved down in a furry arc. It seems like every time I read a book the landscape and geography changes. It showed the town packed with stores and everything right on top of each other, then a little ways behind sat their house. Their house was never that close to town. 

Mama looked absolutely ridiculous standing there with her arms crossed and eyes narrowed in judgment--like she does in every book. I was getting so sick of her know-it-all ways. And what was up with "tree things?" Why wouldn't he just call them ornaments?

I didn't know how I felt about them just changing words around as usual to make it for bears, like "bearlooms." 

Idk what the reindeer and sleigh was supposed to be, but the reindeer were gold and had something on their head that looked like a trumpet and not antlers. Then their front legs were round objects that looked like wheels. The song "Tis the season to be furry es-pec-ially if you're a bear" was kind of stupid. It was clear it was modeled after the real song, but the words weren't good. 

Brother and Sister were cute in their jackets and hats as they left to go tree shopping with Papa. It was funny how he didn't believe Mama when she said it would snow. "I always can tell if it's going to snow by a sharp shooting pain in my left big toe!" It was such a crazy thing to say, made funnier by the fact that we knew it was going to snow.

The rhyming dropped at places which jolted me out of the story.
"As for Gus and those trees
lying in stacks
not for us!" Papa said,
as he took up his ax. 
"But Papa," said Brother,
"Mama knows best. 
Grizzly Gus and his family 
have surely been blessed 
with the loveliest trees around."
"One of his trees?" said Papa.
"No way! I'll show you where
the best trees are 
this chilly day."

Papa was cute as he was determinedly looking for a Christmas tree, peeking out of the jungle holding his ax.

The rhyming really dropped off. 
"There was something important 
that he was forgetting--
Christmas is for giving!
It isn't for getting.
Rhyming forgetting with getting. Not good enough.

And: "A time to think of each other neighbor and friend" didn't make sense.

There was so much repetition too. 
"But, all that was forgotten
as they rounded a bend.
As they rounded the bend,
What did they see?"

Come on, why were the same words and phrases repeated right after each other?

It's crazy how a skunk was living in that tree that was so thin.

I felt bad for Papa who was looking chagrined while he was being glared at by all of the tree's residents. Then all of the cross swoop after him as he runs away with each bear tucked under his arm. 

I didn't enjoy the writing at all. What with the twenty questions game of pointing out all of the things Papa hadn't realized about the Christmas of all of the animals. There was so much italicized, it had way too much emphasis and was exhausting to read. 

What would they do?
Where would they have their holly and bells? 
Their Christmas goodies? Their Christmas-y smells?
How would they enjoy their Christmas feast...
His head was so filled with his bangles and bells 
his bright colored balls,
his tree things staked up in closets and halls,
that there just wasn't room for anything more.

Papa was cute saying he would do anything to find the perfect tree. He was swimming in a stream holding his ax above the water. He was also shown standing on a log that was about to go over the Niagara Falls. Also in the Sinister Bog, with eyes glowing out of the darkness. 

Such big words were used. Impenetrable. Sedate. Regal. Simpler synonyms should have been found.
It was ridiculous how animals popped up out of this tree from nowhere. An eagle and hawk, who wouldn't live together, were at the top of the tree. Then there was an owl, and a wolf, and there had been no sign of any of these animals. I felt bad for Papa who was quivering with fear. That's when I got annoyed because there's nothing wrong with wanting the perfect tree, and it makes cutting down a tree look awful because it ruins the animals' Christmas, when animals don't recognize or even know what Christmas is and they sure don't decorate for it. This would give kids the idea that they shouldn't get Christmas trees because they must be home to a bunch of animals and those animals might attack people and they shouldn't even buy a tree at all. 

The strip of the eagle taking the ax and then chasing after them, throwing it and it knocking his feet out from under him, chopping a tree down and splitting it in half was too much.

Papa found yet another tree, but saw a window and a snow bird living with its family. It was decorating a tree which was too silly. 

"...busily trimming his Christmas tree with the help of the members of his family."
Why italicized?

It was neat how they decorated their tree with seeds they had gathered, and they had a dandelion blossom as the star.

Papa realized it was better to think of others, and decided to just go back and get one of the trees from the farm in town. It was cool how he chopped up skis for them all to get down the mountain.
It was awful how after all that, all of the trees were sold out. I felt Papa once again, always getting the short stick. He looked so disappointed.

When they got home all of the animals from before had decorated their house. Quite fantastical. They even got their sisters and brothers to help them. How did they know where the bears lived? And how did the other animals know what he did to the snowbirds? 

It was nice that all of the bears in town were gathered around their house taking in the spirit of the holiday from the Christmas star in the sky.

It was hard to enjoy this one because the writing wasn't that good and the rhyming failed at a lot of places. Also, the stuff about the animals being in those trees were just too unrealistic to take.