Loading Search

• Buy this Book
• Book Creators
• Related Blog Posts
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook

In the Piney Woods is the sweet, sad story of a young girl's special love for her grandfather and her first encounters with life's funny way of taking away something that's deeply loved while simultaneously giving something new to help fill the void. As a young man, "strong and straight and singing," the young girl's grandpa built a house at the edge of the piney woods, near the sea. Many years la... More

In the Piney Woods is the sweet, sad story of a young girl's special love for her grandfather and her first encounters with life's funny way of taking away something that's deeply loved while simultaneously giving something new to help fill the void. As a young man, "strong and straight and singing," the young girl's grandpa built a house at the edge of the piney woods, near the sea. Many years later, he still lives there with his daughter and son-in-law, their daughter Ella, and her big sister Sada, who, with her husband, Sam, is expecting a baby. Grandpa is old now, bent and not much given to singing, but he loves to go into the woods with Ella, where they turn and twist, then hold perfectly still, pretending they are trees. He's shown her the pitch pinecones, tightly sealed. Only a forest fire is hot enough to melt the pitch and release the seeds inside that will start a new forest where the old one has burned down. Late in the summer, when the forest does burn, Ella finds an opened cone, and she and Grandpa are both comforted, remembering that new trees will grow. When Grandpa dies that fall, Ella plants one of the seeds by his grave, though it doesn't really help. But by spring, there's a tiny tree sprouting there and in Grandpa's old room is Ella's new baby nephew, "growing strong and straight and singing." Roni Schotter's poignant story doesn't gloss over the pain of Ella's loss, but leaves room, in the end, for joy. (Ages 4 to 8) --Jennifer Lindsay

You must be a member of JacketFlap to add a video to this page. Please Log In or Register.