150,000 TREES

A tale of courage and optimism in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The book opens on a quiet Pennsylvania field on a beautiful fall morning. Present briefly yields to the past; miners fell trees to harvest coal. Then back to that autumn day. “Terror had struck.” A “plane, aimed at another building, had crashed here….All forty passengers and crew died.” (Though Hirsch doesn’t describe the motives of those responsible, an author’s note describes how those aboard United Airlines Flight 93 forced hijackers to bring the plane down in an empty field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.) But that’s just the start of a new story: how a community built a natural monument to “the heroes who fought back. A place of healing” for those left bereft and for the mining-scarred land. A 200-acre forest—the work of volunteers who planted 150,000 trees over a period of 10 years—and memorial structures now stand. Tam’s art dramatically exploits perspective as vivid illustrations alternate between bird’s-eye views and underground scenes and veer from long shots to close-ups, sometimes within a single spread. People who vary in skin tone participate in the planting. Swirling, wavelike forms evoke life and strength, trees “lifting their limbs to the light” as hearts lift with hope in this account of tragedy that admirably manages to emphasize the positive.

A sensitive treatment that honors sorrowful memories while showing that healing is possible.