The Horn Book Guide

PICTURE BOOKS

Ruelle, Karen Gray

The Tree

32 pp. | Holiday | September, 2008 | Trade ISBN 978-0-8234-1904-3 $16.95

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Deborah Durland DeSaix. This New York City retrospective describes the life of an over-two-hundred-fifty-year-old tree in Madison Square Park. Beginning as a seed in the mid-1700s, the elm "witnesses" history, overlooking, as time goes on, a cemetery for yellow fever victims, Civil War military campgrounds, and P.T. Barnum's Hippodrome. Intriguing watercolor and oil art illustrates the different eras. "Historical Notes" are appended. Timeline.

Reviewer: Bridget McCaffrey