Everett can\u2019t resist the lure of fame and bright lights, but his current \u201clive show\u201d in his tropical venue doesn\u2019t give him the acclaim he wants. When he\u2019s onstage at the Sandy Straw, he\u2019s largely ignored by the customers, who are busy eating and chatting. Then he learns about the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, inspiring a new goal: He sees his \u201cdestiny\u201d as becoming \u201cthe most famous Christmas tree in the world.\u201d Although he\u2019s a three-foot plastic palm, Everett drapes himself in tiny lights and heads to the airport. He lacks money, identification, and a ticket, but his friend Bird flies into action. Cavalierly subverting security, Bird steals a passport and paperwork, distracts the agent, and ushers Everett through. The stolen credit card subsidizes snacks, photos, and souvenirs, but then all New York flights are delayed by bad weather. Everett is dejected\u2014until a little girl with dark skin recognizes him as the Christmas tree he feels he is, planting \u201ca tiny seed\u201d in his heart. Springing to action with hard work and irresistible enthusiasm, Everett saves Christmas for the stranded passengers, performing for them, uniting them, and spreading \u201cjoy everywhere.\u201d Wexler brings the narrative to a familiar but chipper conclusion, while Berthiaume\u2019s cheery, deep-toned, detailed cartoon illustrations rely on varied layouts, depicting expressive people who are diverse in terms of skin tones; Everett\u2019s an especially winsome protagonist.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Everett can\u2019t resist the lure of fame and bright lights, but his current \u201clive show\u201d in his tropical venue doesn\u2019t give him the acclaim he wants. When he\u2019s onstage at the Sandy Straw, he\u2019s largely ignored by the customers, who are busy eating and chatting. Then he learns about the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, inspiring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}