I wanted to like this book. The setting certainly connected with me - a coastal peninsula in Maine around WWI - and I really liked Clothilde, who was a very realistic and well-drawn character. The other characters were not as compelling. Clothilde's mother was a cypher - sometimes practical and hard-working, other times strangely passive. Lou could be interesting, but wasn't developed enough. The Grandfather seemed to come straight out of every L. M. Montgomery book and seemed a stereotype. Jeb Twohey did touch my heart though and the descriptions of him lost state were very good. The story also moved very, very slowly, without any compensatory insightful dialogue. The book definitely touched on some deep themes, but didn't convey them in an especially memorable way. I felt there was something just touched on but not fully developed: points about love and home, belonging and ownership, need and guilt and prayers asked and answered. Overall, not a story I particularly would want to keep or reread (unlike Homecoming and Dicey's Song).
I liked Cynthia Voigt when I was a kid. I remember loving "Homecoming" and "Jackaroo." I also read this book, "Tree by Leaf" back then but I didn't really remember much about it, so I picked it up again recently. I was very disappointed -- I had expected much more from a Newbery Award-winning author. Many of her sentences are clunky and awkwardly constructed. Punctuation marks are planted haphazardly and incorrectly in the middle of sentences, and she uses too many dependent clauses. It's as though she wrote the book in a big hurry and it was published without an editor to proofread it. The story itself was also confusing. The characters' actions and reactions are uncharacteristic, unreasonable, and unexplained. And don't even get me started on the mysterious "Voice" . . .The best part of this book was the dedication at the beginning.
What do You think about Tree By Leaf (2000)?
What ages would I recommend it too? – Twelve and up. Length? – A two evening read.Characters? – Memorable, several characters.Setting? – Peninsula in Maine in early 1900's..Written approximately? – 1988.Does the story leave questions in the readers mind? – NoAny issues the author (or a more recent publisher) should cover? No.Short storyline: Clothilde has to face the reality that the disfigured man in the boathouse is the man she remembers as Father, who went off to war years ago. In doing so, she is able to help him heal, and return to his family.Notes for the reader: This main character has auditory visions of God.
—April Brown
Clothilde Speer's life is falling apart. Her father enlists in World War I, only to return disfigured and emotionally broken. He moves to the boathouse at the end of their property and refuses to see anyone. Clothilde's mother, too, is changing in an unsettling ways. She fires Lou, the family servant and Clothilde's only friend, and she ceases to take care of the family and the house. This is an emotionally difficult time. This story is about how a young person grows in an environment where the adults need emotional repair.
—☆Antigone♪
