Tove Under the Tree
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A child’s courage and creativity save a fallen tree in this gentle young chapter book about empathy, resilience, community, and our indelible bond with nature. There was a tickle at the top of her head. . . . Tove’s brain vibrated like a phone. The little branch was asking for permission to grow. Tove straightened. “Yes, please grow,” she said. Just like that, her head accepted and welcomed the branch’s polite, exploring baby roots. For as long as Tove can remember, the giant ficus tree has stood in front of her house, shading her bedroom during the day, holding up the stars at night. Now it lies on the ground, chopped down. “It was dead,” says the arborist. “Trees die. People think they live forever, but they don’t.” Or don’t they? Tove picks up a little branch that escaped the chipper, a branch still green and supple, still holding life. With that, she makes a bold and valiant resolution—and when the weight of her decision grows larger than a small child can handle by herself, the entire neighborhood comes together to support her and the tree they all love. With Larissa Theule’s graceful prose and Julie Benbassat’s inviting illustrations, a realistic familiarity merges with magical realism in an elegant, moving story with shades of a classic.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
When old age and warming temperatures doom the beloved ficus outside young Tove's window—the tree that shaded her bedroom during the day and "held up the stars at night"—the girl salvages the one scrappy twig that retains a green leaf. She then presses it to her scalp, and using the most incantatory words she knows ("Mama, Grandma Harriet, me... churros, sunshine, soccer"), invites it to root. In the short chapters that follow, spot illustrations by Benbassat (There's That Sun Again), rendered in soft earth tones and flowing, rounded lines, chronicle how family and neighbors take the transformation in stride ("It's avant garde" proclaims one) as the rapidly growing ficus on Tove's head becomes a congenial, wisecracking companion (asked if it slept well, the tree replies, "Like a log"). But after Tove and the now-weighty plant topple while making an impressive soccer save, the tree realizes that the time has come to put down roots of its own—and with neighborhood support finds just the right spot. Employing quirky humor and an eclectic, accepting sense of both community and individuality, Theule (Mouseboat) blurs fantasy and reality to consider themes of ecological interdependence. Characters are portrayed with various body types and skin tones. Ages 6–9.
