House Held Up by Trees [Unabridged] [Hardcover]

Ted Kooser (Author), Jon Klassen (Illustrator)

Book Description

Release date: March 27, 2012 | Age Range: 4 - 8 years

From Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Ted Kooser and rising talent Jon Klassen comes a poignant tale of loss, change, and nature's quiet triumph.

When the house was new, not a single tree remained on its perfect lawn to give shade from the sun. The children in the house trailed the scent of wild trees to neighboring lots, where thick bushes offered up secret places to play. When the children grew up and moved away, their father, alone in the house, continued his battle against blowing seeds, plucking out sprouting trees. Until one day the father, too, moved away, and as the empty house began its decline, the trees began their approach. At once wistful and exhilarating, this lovely, lyrical story evokes the inexorable passage of time — and the awe-inspiring power of nature to lift us up.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Though there’s a family involved, the real star of this multilayered modern parable is a plot of land...the artwork initially functions as stoic background for the story, with wide-angle perspectives filled with plenty of open space and muted colors. But in the second part, as the trees take over, Klassen’s compositions command more and more attention, elbowing the text into the periphery and subtly reinforcing the themes in play... Unfolding with uncommon grace, the environmental heart of this story is revealed obliquely but powerfully.
—Booklist (starred review)

The former poet laureate Ted Kooser’s HOUSE HELD UP BY TREES is a lyric, poetic story, stark but also imbued with a haunting beauty…Jon Klassen’s illustrations are quiet, delicate and nuanced, amplifying the text in fresh, original ways through the use of unexpected angles and perspective.
—The New York Times

Poignant and lovely.
—Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Ted Kooser, the United States Poet Laureate from 2004 to 2006, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his book of poems Delights & Shadows. He is the author of twelve full-length volumes of poetry and several books of nonfiction, and his work has appeared in many periodicals. Bag in the Wind, illustrated by Barry Root, was his first picture book. Ted Kooser lives in Garland, Nebraska.

Jon Klassen is the author-illustrator of I Want My Hat Back. The first picture book he illustrated, Cats’ Night Out by Caroline Stutson, won the Governor General's Award for illustration in his native Canada. Jon Klassen now lives in Los Angeles.

Product Details

• Age Range: 4 - 8 years
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Candlewick; First Edition edition (March 27, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0763651079
• ISBN-13: 978-0763651077
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 0.5 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #68,031 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ted Kooser was the United States Poet Laureate from 2004 to 2006 and won a Pulitzer Prize for his book of poems DELIGHTS AND SHADOWS. He is the author of twelve full-length volumes of poetry and several books of nonfiction, and his work has appeared in many periodicals. This is his first children's book. He lives in Garland, Nebraska.Barry Root has illustrated many books for children, including THE CAT WHO LIKED POTATO SOUP by Terry Farish and THE BIRTHDAY TREE by Paul Fleischman. He lives in Quarryville, Pennsylvania.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Full Meal of Nature and Family from Pulitzer-winning Poet April 15, 2012

By David Crumm TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

Pulitzer-winning former Poet Laureate Ted Kooser's birthday is close to Earth Day. To be precise, Kooser was born on April 25 way back in 1939, long before anyone thought of the annual observance. Nevertheless, Kooser has been writing about the tangled relationships between our lives and the natural world throughout his career. Now, he gives us this wonderful picture book for children (and the adults who love them). The new book is memorable partly because its story is so simple: A family grows up in a sterile suburban yard with a perfectly manicured lawn, the children grow up, the father ages, the home is abandoned--and native trees soon reclaim the place like rising pillars of some ancient temple.

Of course, followers of Kooser's work through the decades might read this new book as an offshoot of Kooser's earlier family memoir, Lights on a Ground of Darkness: An Evocation of a Place and Time. Anyone who knows Kooser's poetry and especially his family memoir immediately will recognize his voice within these new pages so beautifully illustrated by Jon Klassen.

Kooser wrote the earlier Lights on a Ground at the point when his own family was vanishing and their familiar haunts were fading. No, none of his family had a house consumed by trees, but Kooser makes it clear in his memoir that our human lives and our favorite family stories are woven through the places we love.

He opens the memoir with a poem to his late mother, Vera Delores Moser Kooser: "Mid April already, and the wild plums bloom at the roadside, a lacy white against the exuberant, jubilant green of new grass and the dusty, fading black of burned-out ditches. No leaves, not yet ..." But clearly those leaves are coming in "the month of my birth ... the best month to be born in," Kooser writes. And how does he remember his mother best? By moving some of the irises she loved over to his own yard. Soon, they will blossom in the "feast" of spring. Then, he writes to his mother: "Were it not for the way you taught me to look at the world, to see the life at play in everything, I would have to be lonely forever."

What an elegy! For that reason, in recommending House Held up by Trees today, we also urge readers to pick up Kooser's Lights on a Ground. Together, the two books are a full meal, as Kooser might put it, about the ephemeral quality of family, the ever-changing nature of place--and the potent place of nature in preserving what is best in all of us.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful book about how nature can lift us up March 31, 2012

By Terry Miller

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

You will enjoy "House Held Up By Trees" by Ted Kooser and illustrated by Jon Klassen. The story is told in the simple and beautiful style of Kooser's poetry, so adults and children will enjoy this tale of how nature can lift us up. I don't write a lot of book reviews (I've written only one other for a book by John Yamrus), but I simply had to let readers know about his wonderful work. I don't have grandchildren yet, but when I do, one of the first stories I will read to them will be "House Held Up By Trees." - Terry Jude Miller

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful poet not wonderful children's book author May 1, 2012

By Beverley R. Enright

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I love Ted Kooser's poetry, and I wish there were more of that in this book. But there is too much prose. There is a bit of magic, but mostly the voice is too objective and cool. The illustrations are beautiful.