School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 3-This quiet family story stars a little girl, her grandfather, and the piney woods they love to explore, where they pretend to be trees. But always there are references to the old man's age: "When I was small, Grandpa helped me walk. Now I help him walk." The use of the present tense gives immediacy to the narrative and focuses on the pair's time together. Even when Grandpa is "too tired" to go into the woods, they pretend play on the porch and share cups of tea at the kitchen table. The piney woods burn down, but new growth promises a rebirth just as Grandpa's death is followed by her nephew's birth. The symbolism of the tree is an apt one and describes the strong family member whose roots go deep and whose protection is always sought. Root's watercolor illustrations portray a coastal scene, with scrub pine, sea grass, and sand in abundance. Blues predominate, becoming deeper for storm and night scenes and lighter for daytime. As in Eve Bunting's I Have an Olive Tree (HarperCollins, 1999) and Trish Cooke's The Grandad Tree (Candlewick, 2000), the tree is used to great effect, but throughout most of this book, the grandfather is more of a living presence than a memory to be cherished.-Jane Marino, Scarsdale Public Library, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Working in the same vein as Barbara Santucci's and Lloyd Bloom's Anna's Corn (Children's Forecasts, Oct. 7), Schotter (Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street) brings a gentle hand to the big questions of death and rebirth, while Root's (Birdie's Lighthouse) intimate watercolors convey a joy tempered by grief, and grief healed with love. Ella lives with her extended family in the house her grandfather built when he was "strong and straight and singing." He's old now; he speaks in short phrases and can't walk far. Still, he and Ella explore the nearby pine barrens together. He shows her dwarf pitch pine cones that need to be seared by fire before they'll open to release their seeds. "Waiting," Grandpa tells her. "Everything has its time." Sure enough, a fire comes during the last months of Grandpa's life, and Ella has a chance to show him an opened cone just before he dies; she then plants one of its seeds by his grave. That spring, Ella's sister, Sada, has a new baby, to whom Ella can pass on Grandpa's teachings. Root shows the family overflowing with affection. On one page, they sit around the table eating blueberry muffins, stained and smeared; in another spread, when Grandpa's legs "aren't working well," the others carry him on their shoulders, a joyous procession into the piney woods. Ages 5-up. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
