Originally published over twenty years ago, and out of print since 1998, Sleeping Bear Press is proud to bring this beloved Christmas tale to a whole new audience. Moving and nostalgic, and brought to life by glowing watercolor paintings, it reveals the joy of a very special present and the love that a father and daughter share.

In 1881, when their apple tree is felled by a storm just before Christmas, a young farm girl and her family discover that the tree was important to each of them for different reasons.

Feeling sad because no one chooses it as a Christmas tree, a bedraggled forest pine discovers the importance of being appreciated all year long.

Halloween might seem like the spookiest time of year, but Charles Dickens and other great ghost story writers felt otherwise!

Abby, age six, grows up with the beginning stalk of an apple tree. Because she cultivates, waters and cares for Tree, she unlocks his heart and he speaks to her. Only Abby can hear him. Her childhood is spent around Tree as they grow together. Tree's wise counsel teaches her the lessons of life. Birthdays, graduation, a wedding are held under Tree's sheltering branches. Rather than the parent being an authoritarian figure, a loving tree teaches lessons of making good choices, kindness, responsibility and love. As both grow older, Tree no longer bears as many apples and his bark becomes cracked. They both realize Tree's life is diminishing. Tree has a sad end when he comes crashing down at Abby's feet in a violent storm. With his last breath he tells a tearful Abby he has left her a secret and a happy surprise for the finale. USC graduate with BS and a California elementary credential. Thirty years teaching first and second grades in Los Angeles Unified Schools propels me to write for little ones. Also the author of a true boating adventure story that transpired on all of America's navigable waterways, entitled You Can't Go Incognito in a Battleship.