THE FAMILY TREE

A botanical wonder relinks a disconnected family.

Penny’s family is busy: Dinners need making, homework needs doing, and daily drudgery leaves little opportunity for the household to commune. That is, until Penny and resident pup Bo-Belly notice a glimmer of emerald, suspiciously arboreal in nature, that’s taken root in the kitchen. It grows ever “taller, a little barkier, a little leafier,” until it’s too large to ignore; as the botanical interloper branches out under Penny’s care, it demands the family’s united attention and action. Their efforts to accommodate Tree aren’t without challenges—after Tree breaks through the roof, rain trickles in—but just beyond these bothers lie even bigger joys, among them birdsong, starlight, and a renewed capacity for familial respite. By the time autumn arrives and Tree’s leaves have turned a brilliant vermillion, togetherness has become the rule, not the exception. Scanlon and Vernick depict a protagonist worth emulating; the determined, self-assured, and green-thumbed Penny proves an aspirational figure, capable of energizing similarly precocious readers with a tenacity that verges on the mythical. Reminiscent of craft art styles typically used to depict traditional tales, Lee’s illustrations underscore the plot’s folkloric nature. Her subdued palette creates space for and emphasizes Tree’s verdant presence, though the green glow that surrounds it suggests that magic may also lurk among its leaves. Penny and her mother are brown-skinned, while her father is pale-skinned.

A tale sure to encourage readers to gather around and enjoy one another’s company.