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Reviewed by: Lisa Rice, Middle School Librarian Title: Tree. Table. Book.
Author: Lois Lowry
Publisher: Clarion Books
Year: 2024 Good for Grades: 3-7 Genre/Type of Book: J fiction
Content Warnings, or things that other School Librarians should be aware of: No Recommended for a school library: Yes Reason(s) for choosing the book: I love Lois Lowry and the title of the book, just the three words, intrigued me. I thought it might be a young girl and a librarian looking at each other.
If you were tasked by the publisher with writing a short quote for the back cover of this book, what would it be: "But I had never really got it, never understood history, how things fit together, because I needed someone to tell me stories not of politics and dictators, but of berries and bunnies and books. Of how things are lost and what that means and how it hurts." - Sophie, page 183
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Review:
This is both a really sweet and sad story. Sixth grader Sophia Henry Winslow (her parents thought she would be a boy when she was born) is best friends with her neighbor. They share the same name (Sophia/Sophie), both love the color mauve, and eating quesadillas, and hate gossip. Sophia is eleven years old, and Sophie is eighty-eight. Sophie Gershowitz (her real name is Shlomit) is from Poland. Sophie wears braces and glasses and was never popular in school but becomes a laughingstock when she recommends that the cafeteria at school stop serving pizza, macaroni and cheese, and spaghetti, and start serving more green veggies. The relationship between Sophie and Sophia is sweet and lovely- they play games together, and have tea, and talk.
Sophia overhears her parents talking about how her friend Sophie has been becoming more and more forgetful and she may need to move to Akron to be closer to her son Aaron. Sophie has dementia and it has been affecting her short-term memory. Sophia gets the Merck medical manual from her neighbor across the street and begins to prepare Sophie for her upcoming memory tests. Sophia says three words and tries to get Sophie to remember them a few minutes later and she cannot. Sophia thinks she will remember them better if she tells a story about the word. Sophie shares stories about her childhood in Poland during World War II and it is here that Sophia gets a true history lesson. Sophia realizes that all the things she learns about in school in history class have impacted her friend her entire life. As Sophia says, "Now I knew her history and her future, both at the same time, and both of them made me feels hopelessly sad" (p.154).
This book is about friendships across the ages (and also the same age), World War II, accepting all kinds of people as friends and not trying to change them, and also memory loss and the way it affects the person who has dementia and also the people who love that person. It is one of those books that will find the right person at the right time, and it will be the perfect book for them. There is a lot to discuss if it were to be used as a read aloud or book club book. I think middle school students who like history will also enjoy this book. It is an easy read, and although the themes can be sad, it is such a sweet book as well.
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Find this video and other resources for Tree. Table. Book. at Teachingbooks.net
For more information about this book, see the Publisher's Website