A super amazing book! This book takes about the story of 9/11 from the point of the view of the tree that used to live in the park where it all happened. I would say that this book is a perfect read for younger kids. However, the kids reading this book probably won't understand the travesty that happened on this day and might need it explained to them.

With muted illustrations, the story is told from the perspective of the very real pear tree that was maimed, carefully tended, healed, and brought back to the place that once was its home but now rebuilt with hope for the future. It is a marvelous book. The end matter also describes that there has been a program in which seedlings of the Survivor Tree are sent all over the world to communities suffering from serious tragedies. We can only hope that they have been sent to areas of typhoon, wildfires, hurricanes, and devastating armed conflicts. Every public library needs a copy of this book. ( )

Author/illustrator Sean Rubin, native New Yorker and creator of the graphic novel Bolivar, about the adventures of a dinosaur in that city, turns in this deeply moving picture-book to the subject of 9/11. This is the story of the terrorist attack that devastated the city that day, and the little Callery pear tree that once stood at the base of the World Trade Center, and that survived being buried by tons of steel wreckage, when the Twin Towers came down. Taken to a nursery in the Bronx, the tree was nursed back to health over the course of many years, and was eventually returned to its home in lower Manhattan, where it stands today, on the grounds of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum...

This past September 11th was the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and there has been a flurry of picture-book publications commemorating that terrible event, many of them focused on the story of the "Survivor Tree." Sean Rubin's This Very Tree: A Story of 9/11, Resilience, and Regrowth was published this past May, the same month as Ann Magee and Nicole Wong's Branches of Hope: The 9/11 Survivor Tree. In August, author Marcie Colleen and illustrator Aaron Becker brought out Survivor Tree, while in August of this past year (2020), Miracle of Little Tree: The 9/11 Survivor Tree's Incredible Story was released. The story appears to have first been retold in picture-book form in 2011, on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, in Cheryl Somers Aubin and Sheila Harrington's The Survivor Tree: Inspired by a True Story. It's interesting to note that there is another survivor tree in the annals of terrorist attacks on America. After the Oklahoma City Bombing of 1995, a small elm tree survived the wreckage of the Alfred P. Murrah Building, eventually going on to thrive, and to be christened "the survivor tree" as well. That story is told for children in Gaye Sanders and Pamela Behrend's The Survivor Tree.

Obviously, this aspect of the 9/11 story, and of other stories of terrible events - for another example, see Sandra Moore and Kazumi Wilds' The Peace Tree from Hiroshima: The Little Bonsai with a Big Story - speaks to us, and is considered a good entry to the subject, for younger children. Perhaps because this part of the story is about hope—about the resilience and regrowth mentioned in Sean Rubin's sub-title here. In any case, I found the narrative here deeply moving—I was crying throughout—and the artwork lovely. The book does not delve into the actual events of 9/11 over the course of the story, although they are covered in the author's note at the rear, rather the focus is on the experiences of the tree. I liked this, because it allows parents and educators the chance to discuss the larger subject with the children in their care in a way best suited to their individual needs and comprehension levels. Highly recommended to picture-book readers looking for a gentle, thoughtful way to introduce the subject of 9/11 to younger children. ( )

Author's notes at the end are great. ( )