CHERRY TREE, THE

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Little Book
Review: After losing their father and their home during war - and while their mother is busy during the day struggling to earn a living for her young family - a young boy and his sister try to help an old man wrap a damaged cherry tree as protection against the winter cold, hoping that for the first time since the war started the tree will bloom again in the spring.

During the winter, animals find a home beneath the tree and finally spring brings a family of flowers around it, a comforting sign that renewal may also come to the war-torn village.

The great illustrations are by the renowned Brian Wildsmith, who many say contributed some of his best work in many years to this beautiful little book.

This is a wonderful little book for kids from 4-8 or so, but will also be enjoyed by adults as well. It teaches to never give up hope, for hope is life itself. It teaches that with hope, even the most horrible of circumstances can be overcome and we can find happiness in even the smallest pleasures in life.

Rating:
Summary: A child's dream come true.
Review: I have used The Cherry Tree in 4th and 5th grade inner-city classrooms for many years. Even though it is a picture book, upper elementary school children relate to the notion of hope and reconstruction thriving in an environment of loss and destruction. My students have been greatly moved by the final flowering of the cherry tree at the end of the story--a metaphor about the strength of the will to live.

Rating:
Summary: Use it in the classroom
Review: I have used The Cherry Tree in 4th and 5th grade inner-city classrooms for many years. Even though it is a picture book, upper elementary school children relate to the notion of hope and reconstruction thriving in an environment of loss and destruction. My students have been greatly moved by the final flowering of the cherry tree at the end of the story--a metaphor about the strength of the will to live.

Rating:
Summary: A child's dream come true.
Review: This book is a wonderful portrayal of nature and is a very good book for every child to read.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Little Book
Review: This tale of a cherry tree's survival after the devastation of war will touch the hearts of children too young to understand abstract ideas like pacifism and environmentalism.

Brian Wildsmith's illustrations invite the reader into a world where an old man, a boy, a girl, their newly adopted cat, and especially their mother, can rejoice in a dream come true after enduring a cold, harsh winter.