The Tree of Here [Hardcover]

Chaim Potok (Author), Tony Auth (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 7, 1993

Sheltered in the branches of the dogwood tree in his backyard, Jason pours out his fears about moving to a new home, leaving his friends, and starting a new life. By the author of The Chosen.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Potok disappoints in his first children's book, an ill-pitched story that addresses the need for certain constants in a changing world. Jason is deeply upset when his parents announce that the family is moving--for the third time in five years. Although his friends and Mr. Healy the gardener offer support, it is the dogwood in his yard that gives Jason the most solace: "This tree makes me feel like I'm growing roots. It makes me feel like I'm really here," he says. Seeing a face in the expressive, craggy bark, Jason confides his thoughts to the tree and, in turn, listens as the tree whispers its "secret feelings." His character is amorphous: young enough to believe in talking trees, old enough to go to an ice cream parlor with just his friends, worldly enough to expect that he and his friends won't correspond ("They all knew that boys their age hardly ever wrote one another"). Auth deserves credit for rendering the tree as companionable instead of menacing, especially in a fantastical night scene during which Jason experiences the tree moving across the lawn, reaching into the house with its branches and embracing him. But Auth's art is frequently jarring and seems to nod at animated cartoons: for example, the emptiness said to "invade" the house is represented by white, textbook-style arrows. Don't go out on a limb for this one. Ages 5-9.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal

Grade 2-4-Potok's first book for children is about Jason, whose family has moved three times in five years and is about to relocate again. The boy must say farewell to a dogwood tree, with which he regularly holds mental conversations. Its deep roots are a metaphor for a sense of place and "hereness." Before the family's car pulls away, the gardener gives Jason a little dogwood so that he can "put down roots" in his new home. Potok tries to relate the boy's distress with phrases such as "the kitchen floor swayed slightly." Auth's watercolor illustrations show him engaging in violent play with his toy soldiers and computer games and bidding his friends goodbye. They work better than the text in conveying his emotions, but it is uncertain whether young readers will catch their nuances. The most emotional scene is at the cemetery, where Jason's mother says goodbye to her parents before leaving town, and her husband comforts her. This single-concept story lacks fully realized characters. Leda Siskind's The Hopscotch Tree (Bantam, 1992), with its rich characterizations, is a far better book about adjusting to a new school and finding comfort in communicating with a tree.
Marcia Posner, Federation of New York and the Jewish Book Council, New York City
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf; 1st edition (September 7, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679940103
• ISBN-13: 978-0679940104
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 8.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #922,707 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars About being uprooted -- and putting down new roots, October 20, 2000

By 

Rabbi Yonassan Gershom (Minnesota, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Tree of Here (Hardcover)

The "official" reviewers at Hornbook and Kirkus who didn't like this book must not have been uprooted as kids. I went to five different grade schools, so I could relate.

Yes, the story is slow-paced, and there are some loose ends that never get tied up, but that's the way real life is when your Dad gets transferred and you have to leave everything familiar behind. Life doesn't always move at the speed of a video game. The value of the book is that it acknowledges the sad feelings that kids have about moving. It squarely faces up to the impact of seeing your room disassembled into boxes, the friends who wave goodbye forever, a last visit to the family cemetery, the favorite tree you leave behind...

Ah yes, the tree. It's a big dogwood in Jason's front yard, where he likes to climb and listen to secrets whispered to him among the leaves. The tree is firmly rooted in the ground -- it's the tree of HERE, where Jason wishes he could stay forever. The gardener, Mr. Healy (nice reference to "heal") has taught him all about plants and how to care for them, and the tree is worried that Jason is leaving. Who will take care of it now? Jason reassures the tree that the new people will keep Mr. Healy on as their gardener. Then, just before Jason's family pulls away in the car, Mr. Healy gives him a wonderful gift -- a young dogwood tree to plant in the yard of his new home. Which he does. Both Jason and his little tree will put down new roots. (This I can REALLY relate to -- I planted trees in every place we ever lived. Sometimes I wonder if those trees are still there...)

All in all, I like this book a lot -- too bad it went out of print. The illustrations have a surrealistic quality in places, moving back and forth between what is going on around Jason, and the thoughts and feelings inside his Jason's head. There's one blooper, though. The story says that "a nest of robins" had lived in a hole in the big dogwood tree. Sorry, Mr. Potok, but robins don't nest in holes! It was a nest of starlings maybe???