From School Library Journal
Grade 4-8. This well-written story retells simply a complicated tale of displacement and rebuilding. The narrator begins, "I was born many years ago in a city called Vilna. I remember my papa's bakery, all filled with wonderful smells....But mostly I remember the trees." The double-page illustration is colorful and lively, depicting a busy city scene. With a turn of the page, the mood changes abruptly; the landscape is colorless and gray, and foreboding Nazi soldiers dominate the space: "What remained was a world of stone and mud, crisscrossed by brown-puddled streets where skinny, puffy-eyed people drifted like ghosts." The color returns to the illustrations after the boy's family makes a harrowing escape and emigrates to "eretz Yisrael" (the land of Israel). From that background the story develops, describing the replanting of a barren and empty land through the painstaking and optimistic work of its new settlers. As the story draws to its conclusion, the narrator, now an old man, comments, "Each year, the forest spreads, covering our country with a carpet of green." Waldman's vibrant acrylic double-page illustrations, with their simple form and pointillistic style, convey that change admirably. A historical note provides a concise factual background. An uplifting story and a tribute to the people who were committed to "the greening" of Israel.?Lee Bock, Brown County Public Libraries, Green Bay, WI
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Gr. 1^-4. An old man recalls his childhood in the tree-lined city of Vilna, where his family escapes from the ghetto and is protected by the forests surrounding the town. Later, following immigration to Israel, the boy helps plant trees in his new desert homeland so that the country can once again become a sea of never-ending greenness. Although the story focuses on the efforts of one family, its actions reflect a national effort to reforest Israel and correlate with contemporary celebrations of Tu b'Shvat, the Jewish New Year of the Trees. Waldman's colorful acrylic paintings, rendered in an impressionistic style, are best viewed from a story-hour distance. Liberal use of greens, blues, and pinks creates a hopeful atmosphere, in keeping with the tone of the story. A perfect choice for Tu b'Shvat or Arbor Day story hours, this will also be useful for primary ecology units.
Kay Weisman
